flour & co

OL vs PSG

2011-05-28T09:07:00.008+10:00

Rue St Jean, Vieux Lyon

Quiet street, Paris Saint Germain

Windows 2011

2011-05-23T21:36:00.018+10:00

(Been back for nearly a month, I guess it's about time I post some of my favourite photos I took during my last holiday)

La Traboulerie, rue Merciere, Lyon.

La moulin de la Vierge, rue St Dominique.

Hotel Costes, Rue Ste Honore.

Oh nooo, I can't remember the name of this shop.

Pointe shoes and tutu, Repetto, Rue de la Paix.

and a massive bunny of pink roses on the window of Printemps Haussmann Lafayette.

Jam Session Volume I

2011-02-11T21:29:00.010+11:00

It all started with me reading this blog entry by Coco & me, one of my favourite blog ever that I discovered not so long ago, to my utter delight... Because there are thousands of blogs out there, and when you happen to land on a lovely one like this... it is serendipitous! (I must admit, that if perchance one happen to 'discover' my ho-hum blog, one would not get too excited). Let me share another that is a great inspiring read : French Laundry at Home.

Anyway so I decided that if Christine Ferber's jams are so good, and France is so far... I must make my own. I found Mes Confitures by Christine Ferber at Kinokuniya, I gasped when I saw the price: nineteen ninety five... I know!! What a steal eh ?

Here are some photographic evidence of my first batch ever : Apricot and Vanilla.

Never really impressed by apricots, I was willing to give it a go as they were a plenty and looked beautiful with pink rosy hue.

One day and about half a kilo of sugar later.

Pardon me to gloat, consistency aside I do think it looks quite all right...

I haven't yet opened my jar, I made a batch of 4 and sold 3 on a charity drive for the flood victim. One clientele said that the jam is too runny. Oups! But I'm only jam queen in training after all.

Coooeeee

2011-01-26T09:54:00.001+11:00

G'day!

After a long absence I decided to return to writing up some of my kitchen trials and tribulations and also the occasional triumphs.

Gosh time flies doesn't it? Suddenly it's the end of January... of 2000 bloody eleven! Happy Australia day by the way!

Before it is too late I suppose I might continue on the tradition and write out my kitchen resolutions for 2011 :
a. to have a set of recipe repertoire, a collection of recipes that I can pull out of the hat with ease. This idea came from an Alexander McCall book from the Corduroy Mansion series. One of the character, William has a repertoire of recipes that he'd cook on rotation. I thought it was a great idea.

b. I think I already possess enough instructional books on kitchen methods to shape me into a masterchef had I the talent and time and money *sigh* hence this year : must assert SELF CONTROL in book shops. I will not buy any cookbooks this year (except if they are on a huge sale... that's allowed as I consider that as a steal)

c. read more food blogs because, a. it is free and b. now even more than ever, I support amazing bloggers whose passions for food are phenomenal. I vouch to start leaving them appreciative comments because I have come to really admire a lot of them. They are so committed and discipline and talented and creative. Check out What Katie Ate, it's Sydney based and it's just breathtakingly beautiful. A dormant blog I got acquainted with is no longer updated but oh it's really lovely too, foodbeam by Fanny a passionate patissier.

d. maybe, just maybe... I would commit myself to do a project like Carol in the French Laundry at home. She attempted all the recipes of the French Laundry cook book, and is currently doing the same with the Alinea cookbook, because she thinks she can. I salute her. After a long ponder, I decided that if I had to pick up a recipe book and cook my way through every recipe, I would choose the Thai Street Food by David Thompson. Read what other people's cookbook of choice here).

e. to eat well, and to try to as much as possible, to eat locally sourced food that is in season. And free range organic meats, because I have just started watching the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage DVDs and Hugh is close to convincing me to cook meat (I think HF-W is a food hero... his farm, his support for smallholdings, his free range chicken campaign against the major super market chains... the British are so lucky to have people like Hugh and Jamie with their revolutionary food campaigns. I have not heard Bill Granger or Curtis Stone with their ever visible grins doing any heroic food action!).

f. ever since I came back from Japan, I become a fan of ramen. I am currently going through the list of 15 top ramen in Sydney.

I am so seamless!! I was racking my brain as to what photograph I should stick in this post. That was a snap shot taken by my mobile phone in Kyoto. Lovely isn't?

35% Off

2010-06-06T20:43:00.005+10:00

But it is still one of the most expensive cook book I own I think. I bought it on an impulse having what must had been a rather miserable day. Thai Street Food by David Thompson is full of glossy photos and only after I got it safely tucked in my arms that rainy night that I looked for some confirmation on whether my then, new purchase is an investment or a dud. Many people seem to critise the numerous photographs the book has and how the book has far less recipes than DT's Thai Food book, which those same people swear is a classic and one can't live without.

Of course that rattled me a bit... I was a bit concerned that I made a not so judicious purchase. (note usage of past tense dear friends). Why I like this book is how the recipes are rather looong and requires maaany ingredients, that when I manage to cook something from it I feel so accomplished. Mind you I have only tried 2 recipes from the book. The first one is this jungle curry. Hot like hell, but very more-ish.

Whoopie!

2010-05-23T16:30:00.001+10:00

This my new bicycle! It is lovely... and tall! And after some thought I'm going to call it Gargamel. I haven't taken it out for a ride yet... due to the fact that I had only managed to work out how to lift the kickstand after a telephonic conversation with the seller, and that I'm slightly wary that I might fall. I don't think training wheels are available in adult size bike but anyway, I'm going to practice and I can't wait to be so proficient that I can ride it on the streets!! Just like those elegant Copenhagen chic cyclists!

So otherwise, how have you been? Such a wet week! I'm staying indoors under the doona watching Survivor repeat. Again. Here is the recipe for the Opera that I mentioned last week.

L'Opera
(makes about 20 servings)

The cake
6 large egg whites, at room temperature
30 gr granulated sugar
225 gr almond meal
225 gr icing sugar, sifted
6 large eggs
70 gr flour
45 gr unsalted butter, melted and cooled

To make the cake : Preheat the oven to 220°C and position the racks to divide the oven into thirds. Line 2 31x39 cm swiss roll pans with baking paper and brush with melted butter. In a clean dry bowl beat egg whites until they form soft peaks and gradually add the granulated sugar until the peaks are stiff and glossy.
In a different bowl, beat almonds, icing sugar, and eggs on medium until light and voluminous, about 3 minutes. Add the flour and beat on low speed ONLY until it disappears. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the meringue into the almond mixture then fold in the melted butter. Divide the batter between pans and spread evenly. Bake for 5-7 minutes until they are lightly browned and just springy to the touch. Put the pans on a heatproof bench, cover each with a sheet of baking paper, turn the pans over, and unmould. Carefully peel away the paper then turn over and let the cakes cool to room temperature. The cakes can be made up to 1 day ahead, wrapped and kept at room temperature.

The coffee syrup
125 gr water
65 gr sugar
7 gr instant espresso or coffee powder

To make the syrup : Stir the water, sugar and coffee together in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and cool. The syrup can be covered and refrigerated for up to a week.

The coffee buttercream
10 gr instant espresso or coffee powder
15 gr boiling water
100 gr sugar
60 gr water
pulp of 1/4 vanilla bean
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
200 gr unsalted butter, at room temperature

To make the buttercream : Make a coffee extract by dissolving the instant espresso in the boiling water; set aside. Bring the sugar, water and vanilla bean pulp to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring just until the sugar dissolves. Continue to cook without stirring until the syrup reaches 124°C, pull the pan from the heat. While the syrup is heating, putt the egg and yolk in a bowl and beat until pale and foamy.

When the sugar syrup is at temperature, reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly pour in the syrup down the side of the bowl. Don't try to stir the spatters into the eggs if some syrup spin to the sides of the bowl. Raise the speed to medium-high and continue to beat until the eggs are thick, satiny, and at room temperature, about 5 minutes.

Working with a rubber spatula, beat the butter until it is soft and creamy but not oily. With the mixer on medium speed, steadily add the butter in 2 tbsp chunks. When all the butter has been added, raise the speed to high and beat until the buttercream is thickened and satiny. Beat in the coffee extract. Chill the buttercream, stirring frequently until it is firm enough to be spread and stay where it is spread when topped with a layer of cake, about 20 minutes. The buttercream can be packed airtight and refrigerated for 4 days or forzen for 1 month; bring it to room temperature before using, then beat to smooth it.

The ganache
240 gr bitter sweet chocolate, finely chopped
125 gr whole milk
60 gr heavy cream
60 gr unsalted butter, at room temperature

To make the ganache : Put the chocolate in a medium bowl, bring the milk and cream to a full boil, pour it over the chocolate and wait 30 seconds, then stir gently until the ganache is smooth and glossy. Beat the butter until it is smooth and creamy, then stir it into the ganache in 2-3 additions. Refrigerate the ganache, stirring every 5 minutes, until it thickens and is spreadable, about 20 minutes. The ganache can be packed airtight and refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for 1 month; bring to room temperature before using.

To assemble the cake : Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Working with 1 sheet of cake at a time, cut and trim each one so that you have 2 pieces : 1 25cm square and 1 25x12.5 cm rectangle. Place 1 square of cake on the baking sheet and moisten the layer with coffee syrup. Spread about 3/4 of the coffee buttercream evenly over the cake. Top with the 2 rectangular pieces of cake, placing them side by side to form a square and moisten with syrup. Spread the ganache over the surface, top with the last cake layer, and moisten with syrup. Chill the cake in the freezer for about 10 minutes.

Cover the top of the cake with a thin layer of coffee buttercream, to smooth the top and ready it for the glaze-so go easy). Refrigerate the cake for at least 1 hour or for up to 6 hours; it should be cold when you pour over the glaze. Or if you are in a hurry, pop the cake into the freezer for about 20 minutes, then continue.

The chocolate glaze
115 gr unsalted butter
150 gr bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

To glaze the cake : Bring the butter to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove the pan from the heat and clarify the butter by spooning off the top foam and pouring the clear yellow butter into a small bowl; discard the milky residue at the bottom of the pan. Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over simmering water, then stir in the clarified butter.

Lift the chilled cake off the baking paper lined pan and place it on a rack. Put the rack on the baking paper lined pan and pour the glaze over the cake, using a long offset spatula to help smooth it evenly across the top. Slide the cake into the refrigerator to set the glaze and chill the cake; it should be served slightly chilled. At serving time, using a long thin knife that you dip in hot water and wipe dry between each cut, carefully trim a thin slice form the sides of the cake so that the drip of glaze are removed and the layers revealed.

Et voilà! Don't let the different components discourage you, it is really not as hard and complicated as the instructions may seem.

Note :
1. I used hazelnut meal because I had some at home.
2. Next time I wouldn't put all the coffee extract in the buttercream.
3. I forgot to fold in the melted butter in the cake mixture! No harm done though...
4. The chocolate glaze made the cake looked like a pro. Would use this recipe again. The ganache also is nice.

ps. Another photo of my bike. Can't help it, I love it!

Happy Sunday!

2010-05-16T15:14:00.012+10:00

What a lovely autumn afternoon in Sydney. Walking around Surry Hills this morning under light sprinkle of rain but now the sun is out. Right now I am watching a Survivor repeat with Figgy sleeping nearby. Sun is streaming in, am lounging around in my pyjama pants. Can't get any more relaxing than this. Well actually, that's the slight problem you see, as to why I would be completely useless in a masterchef challenge. But after watching masterchef I feel so pumped up and so last Sunday after masterchef for example, I decided to make a cake and thought that I would finished in 2 hours so say around half past 10, but in the end I didn't get to sleep until after midnight! So kudos to those 3 who made the black forests on Monday in 1 3/4 hours.

This is the end result. I was going to type up the recipe but it's mighty long,

Might type it up when I got time, anyhow it is from Paris Sweets by Dorie Greenspan a book I borrowed from the library. I'm going to doze off for a little nap, before I hit the kitchen to prepare dinner. Toodle-oo!

Coucou!

2010-04-26T21:24:00.007+10:00

Ça va? It's been a while eh? Been busy. And lazy. But the past 2 weeks I made a couple of things I'm quite fond of and proud of so I took the trouble to get the old Mavica out and snapped away. The one below isn't the best one but I think I call this one, the pretty one.

You know how I've managed to make puff pastry, well the croissant recipe I tried comes from the same book. It looks simple and uses the same technique as the puff pastry. After throwing out a batch of dough in the bin because it didn't feel right... as I was of strong character (yeah right) I started another one and this time, I decided to rebel and added more liquid than what the recipe says. I won't type up the recipe by the way... it's kinda long... and I don't think my little blog attract many (if at all) discerning recipe testers.

À bientôt!

Yeast baby

2010-02-28T20:43:00.009+11:00

I must admit that I've been slack lately, the resolution to get off internet has failed so far. I even couldn't be bothered to take photos of the pizzas I made on Saturday, because I knew I'd be too lazy to blog about it. They were quite nice, I think but nothing spectacular. I finally made peace with delicatessens and purchased some ham, pancetta and salami for the topping, I even think that I could be friends with pancetta from now on. The P's came over in the afternoon with little Pumpkin. He is such a cutie pie!

It was C who referred to Eustace 'the yeast baby'... anyway then a bit of show (off) and tell ensued as I had taken a photo of my best effort to date with the scoring, thanks to this scoring tutorial.

After the pizza, for dessert I reattempted the creamy chocolate pudding that I had already blogged about. Thanks C for having taken a few quick snaps of my chocolate pudding.

Courtesy of Yecap Photography.

Ps: Figgy was MIA all afternoon. He was hiding upstairs and barely said hi. How rude! Thanks Paceys for a lovely afternoon!

On superfoods

2010-02-06T16:46:00.000+11:00

Any food related article catches my eyes but especially whenever I come across an article on detox, anti-aging super foods, super foods for complexion to die for, eat your way to better health, you are what you eat bla bla I pay closer attention... because I'm not exactly a spring chicken anymore, you know. Unfortunately, food I love to eat do not often appear in superfoods list.

So here is the latest list of the Anti-ageing Superfoods according to Times Online. Eat one portion of any of three of these superfoods a day to look 10 years younger! Sacrebleu! It's a must try!!
Cinnamon, dried oregano, turmeric, mustard, blueberries, raspberries or strawberries, pear, grapefruit or plum, cherries, orange or apple, dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), walnut halves, pecan halves, pistachios, lentils, kidney beans, avocado, broccoli, asparagus spears, glass of red wine

In the spirit of healthy eating, I thought I might share a recipe of this salmon bake by Jamie Oliver that I did the other week.

Quick salmon & potato al forno
(delicious magazine, August 2009 p.28)
Serves 4
1 kg chat potatoes
1 large fennel bulb
1/2 bunch flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped or grated
25 gr cold unsalted butter, cut inot small pieces
olive oil
4 x 200 gr salmon fillets with skin, pin-boned
a few sprigs of mint, leaves picked, finely chopped
a small handful of grated parmesan
grated zest of 1 lemon, plus lemon wedges to serve

Preheat oven to 220°C.
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Halve the potatoes lengthwise and trim the fennel bulb, reserving the fronds for garnishing later. Cut the fennel into 8 wedges and add to the boiling water with the potatoes and parboil for 6 minutes.

Drain the vegetables in a colander and leave to steam-dry for a minute and transfer to a large roasting pan and season well with salt and pepper. Sprinkle over half the chopped parsley and all the garlic, dot over with butter and drizzle well with olive oil. Toss everything together in the roasting pan and shake out into one even layer. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden.

While the vegetables are roasting, prepare the salmon fillets. Pinch the fillets so they plump up and use the length of the knife to score the skin side, about 1 cm deep. Season well both sides with salt and ground black pepper. Stuff the remaining chopped parsley and mint leaves into the scores.

Once the potatoes are nice and golden, take them out of the oven and sprinkle the grated parmesan over them. Give everything a bit of a jiggle and place the salmon on top skin side up. Sprinkle the lemon zest and drizzle with olive oil, then cook for 15 minutes. Sprinkle the reserved fennel fronds to garnish, and serve with lemon wedges.

New Resolutions

2010-01-26T18:25:00.003+11:00

Meet Eustace, born the 1st of Jan 2010. Named after one of Bertie Wooster's mischievous twin cousins Claude and Eustace. Would really like to make friends with Bob and Philémon. (Nino II had been sent to retirement home, aka the rubbish bin, before I went on holidays.)

To keep him alive is amongst my new year's resolutions for 2010.
The rest includes:

1. To make my bed every day (if time permits)
2. To reduce sugar intake in general and not to eat sugary things every Wednesday
3. To keep track of my spending
4. To tidy up one corner of the flat every day
5. To spend less time on the internet
6. To re-pot and fertilise the 2 orchid plants at home and make them flourish or at least alive
7. To try out new recipes, same target, i.e. 50. In January I tried a new cheese loaf recipe, and a Jamie Oliver salmon and potato bake that perhaps will feature next time.
8. etc etc (I have so many)

I had no time

2010-01-07T23:31:00.020+11:00

Hello to you if you happen to read this, Happy New Year and best wishes!
I had been lured by tumblr in December and completely neglected this blog.

Dear Mr internet inventor, you're a genius, thank you very much for providing me with so much fun and useless knowledge and life without internet would be a torture (for me anyway). But internet has been ruining my sleeping schedule, made me neglect my household chores, and my other projects... and so... for I am all for self-improvement and all that! amongst all my 2010 resolutions, there lurks one consistent message. LESS INTERNET IN 2010. 1-1.5 hours max everday. I don't know how long I'd last... mind you *gulp* I've broken that resolution already, I think, every single day and it's only been a week. So! Starting tomorrow! NO actually, starting next Monday!

1. Less internet, read more
2. Less internet, bake more
3. Less internet, cook more
4. Less internet, clean more
5. Less internet, blog more

...umm I'd need internet to blog though. Such irony.

Anyway... I kind of regret not having posted anything in December... so here are some photos of things I made.

Made the brioche and the ice cream just recently. I attempted to make brioche maybe about three times... the results had been poor. This time I tried a recipe from the Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. At first I was quite intimidated by the length of the recipe but actually it is very descriptive and gives you expectation of how the dough will turn out so that you won't panic and start adding flour when the dough sticks to your hand like there's no tomorrow. HA! Now I sort of know how to handle the dough I'll re-attempt the recipe in my book by Michel Roux or Hermé. The recipe I used for the vanilla ice-cream this time is by Pierre Hermé, lovely and rich.

These are fail pains aux chocolats.

One from another fail batch *sigh* I'm taking a break from pâte à croissant :(

One word : Delicioso. I loved it! Recipe from Le Grand Livre Marabout de la cuisine facile : 900 recettes.

Made the paste from scratch. It was less yummy than one from Malay Chinese on Hunter street but I'm rather proud of it. Next time I will up the paste! Recipe from the Noodle book by Terry Durrack.

Somethings I made for Christmas dinner with E, as she is a girl who's into low fat things and has aversion towards butter. Crisp skin salmon with snow peas and coriander with thai style dressing, recipe by Bill Granger taken from a Delicious magazine, can't remember which edition.

I like this photo of prawns and cactus.

Some noodle salad, again from Delicious magazine this time by Jill Dupleix. Some tofu and greens for the sides, with nuoc cham.

It looks alright in this photo though honestly this wasn't great. The pavlova went soggy because I assembled it too early.

Otherwise, I roasted a couple of chickens... which turned out quite nice, next time I'll take a photo. I made some passionfruit tartelettes, a pot of asparagus soup, some vegetarian saffron risotto, some peas and zucchini risotto, some pasta salad, some friands, etc. Some fun project I did for 2 weeks was the monday-friday baking frenzy in order to cut down on internet browsing. It was great... I felt so productive! This monday-friday bake will definitely feature in my baking resolution this year. I haven't yet set my baking resolutions but I have some great ideas, so exciting! Best wishes again for you from me and Figo. xx

Note :
1. Sadly I am resigning from the daring kitchen (I've taken off the logo). My heart is just isn't in it anymore... Best wishes Daring Bakers!

Fast forward

2009-11-15T00:43:00.001+11:00

Tuesday 13th, which was over a month ago (already!) I went for tea at Ladurée on Rue Royale even though I'd never been crazy about macaron (I however am secretly still obsessing about making thousands of them to sell, and get rich). I chose cassis violette, caramel au beurre salé and pistache... I asked the lady waitress to choose the last one for me, she got me a framboise. They were indeed nice but, what I was blown away with was the vanilla tea. It was beautiful and delicate! That day too I think I had a little pain aux noix from Moisan which was rather good.

The part where I think I'd fast forward is my excursion to Amsterdam. No offense but I thought I should be back into blogging about my baking asap. Anyway, here are some photos I took...

I was back in Paris on Saturday night, and rather sadly I dragged my suitcase to Gare du Nord and took the RER to Roissy and left France on the following Thursday. Here's a little recap of those last few days.

Sunday 18th October - to celebrate my return to Paris, I had a lovely lunch at Ladurée. After some nourishment, I wandered to the Jardin des Tuileries and to the Musée de l'Orangerie.

Les Nymphéas is absolutely b r e a t h t a k i n g.

I love this photo with the boy in orange shirt... after I took this photo I sort of followed him around, hoping to have another shot of him observing other paintings, but after awhile I thought it might alarm his parents.

Monday 19th October - I went to Delmontel on Rue Martyr (9th) and had the best croissant and pain aux chocolat (so far) and a yummy ficelle aux fromage. It's a pretty shop but I nearly missed it. I wanted to go Clotilde's favourite lunch place Rose Bakery just across from Delmontel but it was closed. I also tried to find L'Etoile d'Or but it was also closed.

So I walked towards Les Halles and decided to look for Stohrer on rue Montorgueil, and had the best croissant I had ever eaten. That day I ended up strolling around the 6th / 7th again. I found Pierre Hermé, there was a queue and I couldn't possibly eat another pastry so I only went in and had a look, then walked off to look for Poîlane. I bought a pain aux noix and a chaussons aux pommes. The pain aux noix I could eat whole in one sitting, bloody good! I stopped at half and a bit. The chaussons I had the following morning was also good! would've been better had I had it the day before but still!

As I didn't have much time left, I went nuts and ate so much pastry but I hoped I walked every calories off. Everyday I must have walked equivalent of a demi marathon, surely that's enough exercise.

Tuesday - 20 October. I wanted to go to Delmontel again but Argh! closed on Tuesdays so I crossed the road and bought a quiche from Rose Bakery. I followed the same route as the day before and this time L'Etoile d'Or was open and in I went. Mme Acabo was as charming as everybody says, and yes she had the pigtail hair and tartan skirt. She was having a little tub of chocolate mousse... weight watchers she said, pour ne pas faire grossir... try and she handed me a spoonful. I sort of promised her to send in the articles and photos of her I had seen in my magazines but I hadn't had the time... she has in a cabinet all the various publications featuring her shop that people sent her from all over the world. I bought a couple of chocolates to have with tea and a bag of Henry Le Roux caramel. I didn't buy much but I walked off feeling like I was a precious clientele, Mme Acabo she's lovely. I had both chocolates with tea at cafétier épicier Chez Jean on rue Lafayette, where I bought their eco bag of a bespectacled dog with a newspaper. Feeling refreshed I continued on to look for G.Detou on rue Tiquetonne that intersects with the delightful rue Montorgueil where La Maison Stohrer is, so I went in and bought a pain au chocolat. Mmmm Mmmm...

At G.Detou I bought a tin of pistachio paste (very exciting because I had wanted this for this pistachio ice cream recipe I have) and some poudre de caramel d'Isigny because this caramel au beurre salé thing had become my flavour of the month (my all time favourite is vanilla, bien sûr). I also found another Kayser nearby. (Honestly I hadn't been impressed much by Kayser but was willing to give it another chance) I bought their bread of the month, a loaf of pain aux pistaches-abricots. It was ok, again I wasn't very impressed. That's why even though I saw his book I wasn't particularly interested.

Wednesday 21 October - was my last day :( I had the left over Kayser, then took the metro to Trocadero. I thought people would say I'm crazy if I didn't seek out the Eiffel Tower.

It was drizzling, I took one shot and it was perfect so I left and walked towards the bridges because I wanted to go to the 6th and 7th again. I stumbled across a market on avenue President Wilson, and saw a particularly beautiful and unusual products on a stall where it read Joël Thiébault, I was sure I had heard of him before.. (after I returned I researched a bit and of course from Chocolate and Zucchini).

I found Stéphane Secco on rue Jean Nicot and bought a chaussons aux pommes (which I wolved down in record speed, it was very good, the apple compote had a bit of cinnamon in it, and I was rather hungry) after I finished it I really was going to walk back and get something else from the shop, but then I found another charming looking bakery on rue de Saint Dominique. I crossed the road to have a better look at the sign, and it was the Moulin de la Vierge, so I went in and got a little pain aux tomates/mozzarella and their calico eco bag. The bread was Yummo! I could smell and taste the tomatoes and from time to time got bits of mozzarella. I need to research on tomato/cheese bread recipe because I really liked it.

I was on my way to Le Bon Marché when suddenly as I looked to left and right before I crossed I spotted a Dalloyau. So I went in to get a little croissant. Of course it was good what do you expect? I got another little croissant again later on at la grande epicerie... which was less good. On the same street rue de Sevres, I found Malo and got a chaussons aux pommes, for later.

Then I went to Fnac, and browsed for ages, bought a book 'Cuisine Facile' which turned out to be based on materials from ACP publishing of Australia. Grrrrr I knew I should've bought that Conticini dessert book instead. My last destination that day was supposed to be Pierre Hermé but guess what... I lost track of time in Fnac and arrived at 19.15 and they've closed. At 19.00. Ah well, next time I thought rather somberly... I walked towards St Germain and saw that rue Buci was very lively and strolled along. Carton was still open and I said to myself, last one. I walked out with a little parcel of chaussons au citron.

I had both chaussons the following morning... the one from Malo, good! should've eaten it on the day, would've been better. And do you see what I mean when I mentioned that the croissant from Carton didn't look flash ? Why their chaussons didn't look fancy either, but man! it was so good! even on the following day.

The first few days after I came back, I hadn't the time to bake and I had weetbix for breakfast, Y U C K. But then I started baking again and things have gotten a bit better. Then one day I was feeling melancholic and missed France, I went to Bourke St Bakery and got a croissant for breakfast... was a consolation but, was not great. Said to self, I must must try to make my own. The End.

Come to think of it

2009-11-06T22:14:00.008+11:00

I think I got the days mixed up hummm... On Sunday, I did go to Cojean at Bon Marché but I had the poached egg salad, then I was heading towards Musée Rodin and came across la Pâtisserie des Rêves on Rue du Bac (7th). I recognised the name because I was reading about it in the latest Elle à Table, in I went and left with a brioche feuilletée sort of thing, called la folie. Nice! By the way this Phillipe Conticini just published a new baking book called Sensations (if I remember correctly), it is 45 euro, and weighs approximately 2kgs, filled with recipes that I might never practice... still I'm filled with regret not having bought it. That evening I think I bought a baguette from Phillipe Gosselin, somewhere on Rue Rivoli? I think? apparently winner of best baguette in Paris in what 2002 or something. Good! Very Good!

Monday 12 October - I lined up at Opera Garnier, wanting to buy a ticket for Giselle, but after nearing waiting for ages and finally got so close... did I realise that it was a queue for the tour of the Opera. There was a much shorter faster moving pace queue for the performances. (I saw the ballet in the evening, was beautiful. I paid 10 euro for a sit so high up with partly obstructed view. I had to lean to the left crouching then extend my neck, but it was worth it.)

One hour wasted, and I hadn't had any breakfast. So afterwards, I went to Lafayette Gourmand. I didn't actually have much because the hunger was already gone by then. I got a mini croissant from Kayser, but didn't think it was great. Then I walked all the way to St Germain again... and went to Mulot and had the quiche and the tart (see previous entry) au Bon Marché, went next door to la Grande Epicerie de Paris then walked back to the hotel to change and then to the said ballet.

... to be continued.

I'm back

2009-11-05T22:22:00.005+11:00

Pink window of Stéphane Secco on Rue Jean Nicot (6th)

hummm... left Paris exactly 2 weeks ago :( and I miss it. I loved wandering around in such a lovely city, with bakeries everywhere... really, so good! I hadn't been to Paris for 5.5 years and I had never spent so many days there that this time I was sad to leave at the end! I hope I could go again soon. Dear Singapore Airlines, please do another great sale asap! I love flying with you and even enjoyed the long flight, and didn't mind the 5 hour transit.

Maybe you had seen this list before somewhere on the big world wide web but here is Le Figaro's list of the best croissant in Paris. (Kind of my itinerary - I ate several pastries a day, everyday, convinced that all the walking would counteract all the calories.)

1 - Pierre Hermé
2 - Triomphe
3 - L. Duchêne
4 - Mulot
5 - Lenôtre
6 - Boul. de Monge
6 - Vandermeersch
8 - Julien
8 - Delmontel
8 - Grande Épicerie
8 - A. Poilâne
8 - M. de la Vierge
8 - Secco
8 - Nicolle
15 - Kayser
16 - Angelina
17 - L'Autre Boulange
17 - Blé Sucré
17 - Fauchon
17 - Martin
21 - Cléret
21 - La Fournée d'Augustine
21 - Maître Pain
24 - La Croissanterie
24 - Carton
24 - Paul
24 - Ladurée
24 - Gana
24 - Dalloyau
30 - Moisan
31 - Stohrer
31 - Malo

So that I could re-read and reminisce, some notes on what I ate and liked... in chronological order.

Day 1 - Saturday 9/10. I arrived in the morning and stayed in the Bastille, that afternoon I found this little place that Clotilde mentioned Le Bar à Soupes. So I had lunch there, it was quite nice... I had a bowl of carrot soup and a slice of homemade citrus tart.... near Place des Vosges I came across a Lenotre but I didn't go in because I was still full. After hours of walking around though, I came across Carton on Rue Buci (6th) so I had my first croissant. Honestly it didn't look too flash, but surprise surprise! it was very good.
Day 2 - Sunday 10/10. I went to the organic market on Boulevard Raspail, then as I wondered around Boulevard St Germain I found a pink delivery car that says Gerard Mulot, 76 Rue de Seine. Ha! Just around the corner so there I went. The window is so lovely, really exquisite I think. I bought a slice of quiche, and a sugar plum tart.

The quiche was yummo... I decided to hold on to the tart until I find somewhere to have tea. So lucky because I was there around the time sale started, not that I cared much about the sale, but then Le Bon Marché was open exceptionally on that Sunday. I was excited first and foremost because I was dying to go to toilet actually. Relieved I then went on browsing around the book section, next to the cook book section I found a Cojean.
So I ate my tart there with a cup of tea. It was really nice but not as lovely as I thought it'd be... the plum on top though were beautiful. Really.

... to be continued

Thriller

2009-10-05T17:42:00.009+11:00

As I write this, I am looking nervously at my oven. Inside it, is a trayful of what is to be some vanilla macarons. In a few minutes I will find out whether they have feet or not. I'm not an expert in this, in fact I can refer you to a specialist: Duncan from Syrup&Tang.

ARGHHH !! it's only been 8 minutes as I glanced into the oven, the macarons have feet allright! but, they have taken in too much colour!! Boohoo! Kuidaore is right... One has to watch the oven like a hawk :(

The thrill doesn't last very long. No Way I'm going to take a photo, in fact I'm going to get rid of the offending biscuits soon with a cup of tea.

Right, so perhaps I should just show you my new dining table and this chicken dish I like to make from time to time. A Jamie Oliver's recipe, very quick, easy and delish and the several times I made it, I used whatever herbs I had in the fridge.

Chicken with tomatoes, capsicums and couscous
Serves 4 (delicious magazine, aug06, p.37)
4 chicken breast fillets, cut into 2 cm chunks
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 long red chilli, seeds removed, cut into thin strips
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups (300gr) couscous
2 good handfuls mixed coloured teardrop or cherry tomatoes, halved
270gr jar roasted red capsicums, drained, cut into fat strips
Few basil leaves, finely shredded.

Combine chicken with most of the lemon zest and chilli, the lemon juice, cumin, garlic and 2 tbs oil. Season and set aside to marinate. Combine couscous and 350ml boiling water in a bowl. Cover and set aside for a few minutes

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large frying pan over high heat. When hot, cook chicken and marinade, stirring, for 3 minutes or until golden brown and cooked. Add tomato, capsicum and basil, and cook for 1 minute until tomato softens.

Stir remaining oil into couscous with a fork, fluffing up grains then season. Sprinkle chicken with reserved zest and chilli and add a spoonful of thick Greek yoghurt if you like. Serve with couscous.

Note:
1. Whence I had none, I substituted basil for some rosemary, flat leaf parsley, curly parsley, coriander and/or mint... all of them worked quite well.
2. Of course I've had it with couscous, but also with pasta, and cold with rocket in a a crusty bread. So good!
3. Here is a pic of the afore mentioned dining table. I know that I'm gloating a little bit (and that it's not a very nice characteristic!) but I do love this table, the tempered glass colour is my kind of colour, it seats 6 but extends to seat 10... just in case.

Dud

2009-09-12T10:02:00.004+10:00

Every now and then, no matter how much care I put into making something, the result turned out to be a dud. Now I know that I can easily blame the recipe but this time, seeing that it comes from the mighty Mr Hermé, one of ses coups de coeur no less, I think I must have done something wrong. Recipe attempted : passionfruit crème brulée.

Crème brulée aux fruits de la passion
(Larousse des desserts p.443)
7 egg yolks
125 gr caster sugar
8 passionfruits
380ml crème fraîche liquide

Preheat oven to 90°C.
Whisk egg yolks with the sugar, incorporate the passionfruit pulp and add the cream.
Divide into individual ramekins, and bake for 1 hour. (the recipe didn't specify for a bain marie so I just baked them like that)

I've made this once and liked it though I made a mental note that it was too runny, and thus must either add another yolk or use less cream. But I was hesitant to muck around with the recipe and decided to give this recipe another go as is, fatal mistake. After an hour, the top wobbled all right... I crossed my fingers hoping that they would set overnight in the fridge. Long story short, they didn't and A said it was like soup. No offense taken.

Crafty little me, made some other milky passionfruity concoction last night and mixed it with the remainder of the duddy PCB and churned the bloody thing in the ice cream maker. Dud transformed into a quite a delight.

Note:
1. I added 3 more passionfruits, about cup and a half of milk, juice of 1 and a half of lemon plus sugar to taste.

Delivery

2009-09-05T10:06:00.009+10:00

Finally! YAY!

But GOSH! The armchair was already a tight fit but the sofa was a struggle to get in through the entry door, lift, another door and finally my door. There was only one guy delivering and so, I had to act as the second delivery man. I still have sore biceps from all the manoeuvering and lifting.

Anyway... took this picture yesterday. Figgy already claimed the sofa as his. Please come by visit me and Figaro, now that you wouldn't have to stand around... waiting for me to offer you water. Sorry T and C! Next time, there might be a treat.

So exciting that now I have a fridge with a freezer! I made some ice cream last week. It lasted a week. Well the magazine did say the texture might deteriorate and it's best to be consumed within one week of being made.

Vanilla bean ice-cream
makes 1 litre
(Delicious magazine, Nov'03 p.134)

Step 1
6 egg yolks
125 gr caster sugar
400 ml milk
1 vanilla bean, split
300 ml thick cream (48% fat content)

Step 2
Place the egg yolks and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat with electric hand beater until thick and pale. Place the milk in a saucepan, scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add to the milk with the pod, then heat over medium heat until scalding point. Remove from heat and set aside to infuse for 10 minutes. Discard pod and reheat milk to scalding point, then strain over the egg mixture and beat until just combined. Return the mixture to a clean saucepan and place over low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon - don't allow it to boil (this can take up to 20 minutes).

Step 3
Pour the custard into a bowl and sit over a bowl of ice, stirring until cool. Cover the surface of the custard with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming and place in the fridge to chill completely. Whisk the cream into the cold custard until well combined, then pour into a shallow plastic container, cover and freeze until frozen at the edges (this can take up to 1 1/2 - 2 hours).

Step 4
Remove the ice-cream from the freezer, beat with an electric hand beater until smooth, then return to the freezer. Repeat this step 2 or 3 more times (beating the ice-cream prevents the formation of ice crystals). Alternatively, churn the mixture in an ice-cream machine to manufacturer's instructions.

Note :
1. I added a packet of oreo biscuits (sans the white cream filling) towards the end of the churning.
2. I must say that I felt mighty fat the following week.
3. Have sneaked a peek at this month's daring bakers challenge, and it's a good one, I'm in!

¡Hola!

2009-08-30T10:40:00.003+10:00

A big hello to my 3 followers! How are you all doin'? As for me, it's been great but busy several weeks. I've finally moved! I can't believe, that I've been in my new place for 3 weeks. Without furniture! Except my bed, my pink table and a pair of chairs. It's minimalist to the extreme, but I'm completely in love with it... even empty. Best impulsive purchase I ever made. Apart from Figaro.

Figgy too is very happy with the place although he was a little scared at first, the first night when I got home, I couldn't find him... turned out he was hiding under my bed and only got out when he saw me... his tail tucked in, the poor thing. He followed me everywhere, his meows were timid meows and even after a week, when the P's came to visit... he hid upstairs. Well now, he acts as if he owns the place.

I must say, compared to my old little kitchenette in Lilyfield, my kitchen now is fantastico. But I somehow miss the mini oven... one of the last few things I bake in it were these little gougères.

(Quite yummy little things they are)

I have more than one recipes, and honestly I can't recall which one I tried, it's that many weeks ago! I think it might have been the one from a book I received as a present last Christmas, Pastry by Michel Roux.

Gougères
1 quantity freshly made choux paste, still warm
120 gr Emmenthal or Comté, grated
tiny pinch of cayenne pepper
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
eggwash (1 egg yoik mixed with 1 tbsp milk)

Choux paste
makes 40-50 little choux buns
125 ml milk
125 ml water
100 gr butter, diced
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp caster sugar
150 gr plain flour
4 eggs

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper. Combine the milk, water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan and set over a low heat. Bring to the boil and immediately take the pan off the heat. Shower in the flour and mix with a wooden spoon until completely smooth.

Return the pan to a medium heat and stir continuously for about 1 minute to dry out the paste, then tip it into a bowl.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating with the wooden spoon. Once the eggs are all incorporated, the paste should be smooth and shiny with a thick ribbon consistency.

Add the 3/4 of the grated cheese, the cayenne and the nutmeg to the warm choux paste and mix to combine, without over working.

Place the gougère mixture in a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain nozzle and pipe small mounds in staggered rows onto the prepared baking sheet. Brush with eggwash and lightly mark the tops with the back of a fork, then sprinkle over the rest of the cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes until dry and crisp on the outside and base, but still soft inside.

Note:
1. I missed the Daring Bakers challenge again... I think it's the third consecutive month so I think I might be getting shown the exit door. Ouch.

OMG! Puddle Woman!

2009-07-16T21:32:00.006+10:00

Julie is in the grand final of Masterchef Australia! She's my personal favourite because of her cooking love philosophy, but towards the end I was running for Justine. She's amazingly talented I thought, I teared up when she got booted out of the top 4. But Julie, man! who would have thought that she'd made it to the grand final. I am so loving this show, sad that it's ending on Sunday! By the way it's my colleague M who labeled her Puddle Woman after her passionfruit (puddle) pie disaster.

I've been so lazy this days. Haven't been exactly the most productive, I'd have to pull a valiant effort (either George or Matt who used that word valiant effort after everybody managed to pull that last toothache inducing cake of a pressure cooker test, good word I like it) to conquer (I think that's another word used by Matt) my 2009 resolution

ps. I skipped DB challenge last month, and I'm not inspired to do this month's. I need to make sure I attempt next month's lest I get kicked out *frown*.

Edible Alphabet Series

2009-07-16T20:13:00.002+10:00

I have a thing for lists. Be it the list of winners of the Man Booker prize, or 1000 places to see before you die, someone's grocery list, to worst dressed celebrities. Naturally I love food related lists the most, and these days I visit the Observer Food Monthly and the lifestyle section of the Times regularly for their food related lists... from 5 ways with rice to 10 of London best secret supper clubs. One I particularly like is the 50 best recipes EVER compiled by OFM, by which Jill Dupleix had been tickled to make a similar list for SMH.

Another one I like I came across recently in the Guardian (republished in Mighty Foods) by Nigel Slater: Eating through the alphabet. A simple concept but I like it, so I am obviously going to steal it and declare a resolution to bake through the alphabet. That'd be (26 recipes to make up the 50 I need to successfully complete my goal this year, HA!

By the way I'm stooping low, because it's mid July and I don't think I'm close to trying 25 new recipes. So whatever you might think, for my galette des rois, I'm giving my self 3 points, 1 for the pâte feuilletée, 1 for the crème frangipane and 1 for the galette des rois itself plus the 1 point for this recipe of rhubarb compote, and another for the tarte fine aux pommes. That makes 5. Cool cool.

Rhubarb Compote
(taken from Soho cooking by Alistair Little, p.239)
500 gr rhubarb
1 vanilla pod, split
200 gr caster sugar

Top and tail the rhubarb and cut into 2-3 cm lengths. Place in a large ovenproof dish; add the vanilla and scatter with the sugar. Leave to macerate for a minimum of 3 hours, but preferably overnight.

Preheat your oven to 180°C, and loosely cover the rhubarb with greaseproof paper. Bake for 10 minutes then turn the oven down to 150°C, and continue cooking for a further 30 minutes. Different types of rhubarb will require different cooking times: the 30 minutes at 150°C suggested here is probably a bare minimum. Check the fruit after this time has elapsed and continue if necessary. In addition, some types of rhubarb stay intact as they cook whilst others collapse; so don't worry too much if you end up with a 'fool-like' result, rather than beautifully intact pieces.

Now to the next recipe,

Tarte fine aux pommes.
(taken from Exceptional Cakes by Dan Lepard & Richard Whittington, p.120)
Makes 4 individual tarts
400 gr butter puff pastry
4 tbsp pastry cream
4 Granny Smith apples
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp apricot jam
flour for dusting
Glaze:
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp milk
To finish:
icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Line a baking tray with a non-stick baking parchment or a silicone mat. Divide the pastry into four and roll out each portion on a lightly floured surface into a thin round, about 15cm diameter. Place on the baking tray. Scrape the pastry cream over the pastry with a palette knife to coat thinly.

Cut the apples into quarters and remove the cores, but leave the skins on. Slice the quarters into paper-thin slices and fan these out on the pastry discs, with each new slice slightly overlapping the last. Leave a 1cm rim of pastry uncovered. For the glaze, lightly beat the egg yolk with the milk, then brush over the pastry rim.
Sprinkle the apples with the sugar.

Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the oven setting to 150°C, and bake for a further 5 minutes. The apples will have taken on a golden glaze while the pastry will have puffed up around the rim.

Warm the jam in a small pan until melted. Press it through a sieve to remove any large pieces of fruit, then brush over the warm tarts.
Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Note:
1. I still owe you the recipe for la crème patissiere... (thought I might type it up for you when I blog some petits choux or something)
2. Until I can come up with a better one, R is for Rhubarb Compote.

Since last week

2009-07-04T10:43:00.003+10:00

I'm another year older *sigh*
though I did receive cool presents *grin*
one of which is a bread baking bible courtesy of A *wheeee*
It's true that I do love baking bread more than most things (started when I was young(er) you see...)

Anyways, I didn't make the list. What list you ask? Ummmm, the London Times 50 of the world's best food blog, I didn't make it... but do check out the list, it's quite cool. Cream Puffs in Venice of the daring kitchen made it, that's cool... otherwise a few favourites of mine such as Chocolate and Zucchini made it of course! and the Chubby Hubby...

Weather is beautiful, I'm going to the market just behind my place and walk to Balmain and catch a ferry to the city... ta ta!

ps. be back soon.

pink cheeks

2009-06-20T14:02:00.003+10:00

Oh la la! Lovely compliments I get from the little galette des rois I made yesterday.

I made pâte feuilletée again and the second time around it felt easier. I hadn’t had the guts to try it for my whole life! If only everything else in life turned out to be as simple. Now now, that sounds a bit cocky … so ok, it wasn’t the easiest thing but puff pastry is simply time consuming to make and do not let that deter you.

Long post alert! Though I thought a detailed raconte of the steps is essential for this recipe.

Galette des rois à la frangipane
(from Larousse des desserts p.129)
pour 4-6 personnes
600 gr pâte feuilletée
300 gr crème frangipane
1 egg

Prepare the pâte feuilletée
Prepare the crème frangipane
Divide the pâte in two and roll out until it is about 2.5mm thick.
Beat the egg and brush the outer edge of one of the disks. Spread the crème frangipane, and pose the other disk on top making sure they seal properly all around.
With a little knife, trace parallel rayures (mmmhhh, now what does this translate in English) in one direction, and then the other. (Oh please, don't worry if you are confused because me too I was terribly confused. Please google images then you'll get the idea)
Leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes whilst the oven preheats to 250°C.
Glide the galettes in the oven, reduce the temperature to 200°C and bake for 40 minutes.

Now, for the components...

Butter puff pastry
(from Baker & Spice Exceptional Cakes by D Lepard & R Whittington)
Butter paste
340 gr unsalted butter, softened
150 gr French T550 flour or plain flour

Assembly
560 gr French T550 flour or 280 gr plain flour and 280 gr strong bread flour + extra for sprinkling
4 egg yolks
180 ml bottled spring water
2 tsp Maldon salt, ground fine

First prepare the butter paste : put the butter and flour in the bowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer fitted with the paddle. Mix on the slowest speed until combined. Transfer the butter paste to a sheet of cling film and shape into a rectangle about 6mm thick. Wrap in the cling film and keep in cool place (but not in the refrigerator) while you make the dough.

Put the flour, egg yolks, water and salt in a bowl and mix to a dough. If necessary, add another teaspoonful or two of water, but be careful – the dough will soften on resting. What you want is a smooth but fairly tight dough. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes or until the dough is very smooth and elastic. Shape into a ball, wrap in cling film and leave to rest for 1 hour or, ideally, overnight.

Lightly flour the work surface and roll out the dought into a rough square about 8mm thick. Place the rectangle of butter paste in the centre and fold the corners of the dough over the top to cover the paste completely. Wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough out, rolling away from you, into a long rectangle about 65-70 x 35-40 cm and 1 cm thick.

Fold one end in by a sixth and then the other end in by a sixth. Fold both ends over again by a sixth so that they meet in the centre. Now fold the two together, as if you are closing a book.

Next turn the dough so the fold is to one side. Roll it out gently away from you again into a long rectangle about the same length as before. Fold one end of the dough in by one-third, then the other end in by a third, over the top of the first third. This is a single turn.

Spread a sheet of cling film over a tray, place the dough on top and cover tightly with cling film. Leave in the refrigerator or cool place for 1 hour.

Set the dough on a floured work surface so the fold is to one side. Roll out into a rectangle again and give it a single turn, followed immediately by another single turn. Wrap in cling film and leave in the refrigerator overnight before using.

Crème frangipane
(from Larousse des desserts p.54)
100 gr butter in room temperature
100 gr icing sugar
100 gr almond meal
1 tsp corn flour
2 eggs
1 drop of bitter almond essence
125 gr crème pâtissière
Cut the butter into little pieces and place in a bowl. Soften with a spatula then switch to an electric mixer at low speed, add successively the icing sugar, almond meal, corn flour, the almond essence (which I substituted with a tiny dash of orange blossom water) and eggs. Lastly, incorporate the crème pâtissière and mix well.
Cover with cling wrap if not used immediately.

Note:
1. I'm tired of typing, will type up the recipe for crème pâtissière in le prochain blog.
2. Bon courage et bon appétit!

Happy Birthday Her Majesty

2009-06-08T17:53:00.006+10:00

It's public holiday today here in Sydney, the weather was rather nice... my ma and pa have returned home, leaving me and Fig in a weirdly quiet studio. Fig by the way, had been a good boy all the time my parents were here but as soon as they've left he's back to his old self, meowing persistently as early as 5:14 am this morning.

I just finished watching Masterchef and OH! How I want to make some choux à la crème right now! It was an excellent episode by the way... Poh, Chris, Tom and my favourite Julie battled it out having performed the worst in Sunday's invention test. Today in the pressure cooker test, they had to make a croquembouche in 2.25hrs and it was a gripping episode let me tell you. I spare you the details but despite her rather disastrous croquembouche not coming out of the cone all in one piece, Julie's still in it!!

So, anyways ... the daring bakers challenge of last month. Here's another photo of my strudel again.

I was very late and only made the strudel sometime last week, the result could've been better I thought... doesn't it look rather rustic? I didn't read the recipe properly and rather than pulling the pastry, I rolled it out and chickened out thinking that it might rip and so it wasn't thin enough to envelope the filling more than twice. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw other people's pastry rolled out thinner than paper and bigger than a table. Never mind the stodgy look, I had a piece shortly after it came out of the oven with mum, it was rather lovely.

Apple strudel
from “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers

2 tablespoons (30 ml) golden rum
3 tablespoons (45 ml) raisins
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (80 g) sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick / 115 g) unsalted butter, melted, divided
1 1/2 cups (350 ml) fresh bread crumbs
strudel dough (recipe below)
1/2 cup (120 ml, about 60 g) coarsely chopped walnuts
2 pounds (900 g) tart cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into ¼ inch-thick slices (use apples that hold their shape during baking)

1. Mix the rum and raisins in a bowl. Mix the cinnamon and sugar in another bowl.

2. Heat 3 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the breadcrumbs and cook whilst stirring until golden and toasted. This will take about 3 minutes. Let it cool completely.

3. Put the rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a large baking sheet with baking paper (parchment paper). Make the strudel dough as described below. Spread about 3 tablespoons of the remaining melted butter over the dough using your hands (a bristle brush could tear the dough, you could use a special feather pastry brush instead of your hands). Sprinkle the buttered dough with the bread crumbs. Spread the walnuts about 3 inches (8 cm) from the short edge of the dough in a 6-inch-(15cm)-wide strip. Mix the apples with the raisins (including the rum), and the cinnamon sugar. Spread the mixture over the walnuts.

4. Fold the short end of the dough onto the filling. Lift the tablecloth at the short end of the dough so that the strudel rolls onto itself. Transfer the strudel to the prepared baking sheet by lifting it. Curve it into a horseshoe to fit. Tuck the ends under the strudel. Brush the top with the remaining melted butter.

5. Bake the strudel for about 30 minutes or until it is deep golden brown. Cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. Use a serrated knife and serve either warm or at room temperature. It is best on the day it is baked.

Strudel dough
from “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers

1 1/3 cups (200 g) unbleached flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons (105 ml) water, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

1. Combine the flour and salt in a stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the water, oil and vinegar in a measuring cup. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour with the mixer on low speed. You will get a soft dough. Make sure it is not too dry, add a little more water if necessary.
Take the dough out of the mixer. Change to the dough hook. Put the dough ball back in the mixer. Let the dough knead on medium until you get a soft dough ball with a somewhat rough surface.

2. Take the dough out of the mixer and continue kneading by hand on an unfloured work surface. Knead for about 2 minutes. Pick up the dough and throw it down hard onto your working surface occasionally.
Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to a plate. Oil the top of the dough ball lightly. Cover the ball tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to stand for 30-90 minutes (longer is better).

3. It would be best if you have a work area that you can walk around on all sides like a 36 inch (90 cm) round table or a work surface of 23 x 38 inches (60 x 100 cm). Cover your working area with table cloth, dust it with flour and rub it into the fabric. Put your dough ball in the middle and roll it out as much as you can.
Pick the dough up by holding it by an edge. This way the weight of the dough and gravity can help stretching it as it hangs. Using the back of your hands to gently stretch and pull the dough. You can use your forearms to support it.

4. The dough will become too large to hold. Put it on your work surface. Leave the thicker edge of the dough to hang over the edge of the table. Place your hands underneath the dough and stretch and pull the dough thinner using the backs of your hands. Stretch and pull the dough until it's about 2 feet (60 cm) wide and 3 feet (90 cm) long, it will be tissue-thin by this time. Cut away the thick dough around the edges with scissors. The dough is now ready to be filled.

(heart printed on my strudel yes!)

Tips
- Ingredients are cheap so we would recommend making a double batch of the dough, that way you can practice the pulling and stretching of the dough with the first batch and if it doesn't come out like it should you can use the second batch to give it another try;
- The tablecloth can be cotton or polyster;
- Before pulling and stretching the dough, remove your jewelry from hands and wrists, and wear short-sleeves;
- To make it easier to pull the dough, you can use your hip to secure the dough against the edge of the table;
- Few small holes in the dough is not a problem as the dough will be rolled, making (most of) the holes invisible.

Both Courtney and Linda did a trial run on making the strudel. Below are their notes:

Courtney's notes
- She could't get it to stretch to 2 feet by 3 feet, it turned out more like 2 feet by 2 feet. But the dough was tissue thin nevertheless;
- She got some serious holes, but after rolling it wasn't noticeable;
- She used a large cheese cloth which helped manipulate and stretch the dough more than a heavier cloth would have.

Linda's notes
- I made the dough by hand, just mixed the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon. Kneaded it for about 5 min like you would bread dough. This worked as well. Haven't tried using a standmixer so I don't know how it compares.
- Instead of cider vinegar I used red wine vinegar;
- I used bread flour;
- Picking up the dough to let it stretch didn't work well for me, holes appeared pretty much instantly. Instead I stretched the dough while it was lying on the tablecloth by putting my hands underneath and stretching it out further and further;

I must dash off

2009-06-01T12:23:00.003+10:00

I'm late... very late! but I finally attempted last month's daring bakers challenge this morning and here's a little photo of my strudel.

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

I'll be back with some details shortly ladies and gents.

No time for banter

2009-05-28T10:48:00.006+10:00

Oh my gosh!! I haven't done my daring bakers challenge as yet! I completely mixed the date up with the daring cook challenge! Aargh!! I'll try to do it tonight but OHHH I'm so annoyed at myself now! Should've spent my time more productively than tumblring which is my newest internet discovery.

So due to the long recipe, allow me to cut my gib even shorter this time by omitting the recipe for the pâte feuilletée. That by the way is one of my proudest baking moment this year. It unfolded rather perfectly and each layer was nice and flaky. I made some chaussons aux pommes and some cheese sticks, and here is a photo and the recipe for the cap...

Chaussons aux pommes
(from larousse des desserts)

500 gr puff pastry

5 apples (reinettes)
1 lemon
150 gr sugar
20 gr crème fraîche
30 gr butter
1 egg

Juice the lemon, peel the apples and cut into little cubes and mix straight away into the lemon juice so that it doesn't brown. Strain and mix well with sugar and the crème fraiche. Cut the butter into little pieces.

Preheat the oven to 250°C.

Prepare the puff pastry, roll out to 3mm thickness and cut into 10-12 circles of 12cm diameter. Whisk the egg lightly. Place enough apples and a bit of butter on one side of the disks and brush the sides with egg. Fold to close and brush top with egg. Leave to dry a little and score with knife tip careful as to not pierce the pastry.

Bake for 10 minutes at 250°C then lower to 200°C for 25-25 minutes. Serve warm.

Pas mal, hein?

Masterchef

2009-05-17T11:30:00.008+10:00

I am not averse to reality TV, and lately my favourite is the Australian version of Masterchef. Last week, to avoid elimination... 3 of the finalist who performed the worst in the rabbit challenge, had the last opportunity to redeem themselves by preparing a tarte tatin. So obviously last week I was itching to bake one myself, but I haven't been feeling 100% fit so let's just say that I've been lazy.

In the end, the girl with a slight penchant for molecular gastronomy got eliminated, sparing Aaron another molecular gastronomy fan the cut. The last of the 3, is perhaps one of my favourite in the show... not that I think she will win it, but Julie is an IT consultant, working mum of 3 who cooks out of love. She said that cooking is for her a way to show and share her love with other people, and how she would like the opportunity to share it with even more people outside her friends and family, that's endearing I think... and definitely resonates with my fondness for food preparation. Because beside the thrill that I get when I test out a new recipe, more often than anything I am a domestic kitchen slave out of love. And nowadays more and more I prefer to eat food that I know had been prepared with some care too. I'm sure the people at Smiths chips are very caring people...

note :
1. I finally rolled up my sleeves yesterday and made some chaussons aux pommes out of the pâte feuilletée I made the other day. To my delight, they were rather wonderful. Blog to follow.
2. My mum is here for a visit! my dad to come a bit later! plus I'm moving hopefully before my birthday. Excuse my untimely blogs between now till end of june.

Lady of leisure

2009-05-10T23:25:00.008+10:00

I didn't bake anything new all week, nor cook anything to blog about. May so far has been dud. Plus I'm sort of planning to do a mini detox what with my birthday coming up, am trying to preserve the last ounce of youthful appearance left in me *sigh*. Refined sugar apparently is a no no, so perhaps in the weeks to come either I'll go awol or I'll strive to bake delicious wholesome stuff like those I found in this bakery I went to on Saturday.

I had an apple and berry turnover which was nice, and they offered to heat it up for me, with a cup of coffee. Very decent. I wish this bakery is in my neighbourhood.

Organic Republic Bakery
98 Glenayr Avenue
Bondi, 2026
ph. (02) 9300 0985

Note :
1. I have a work in progress sitting in the fridge so haven't been exactly twiddling my thumbs. I am attempting to make puff pastry, wish me luck.
2. Figaro now has a secret private diary.

Woot!

2009-05-03T10:59:00.006+10:00

Everytime I see this word I wonder what it means. I'm not hip (read: young) enough to have used it in my correspondence / conversation the past. Not that I am going looking forward to be actively woot wooting people but out of curiousity I consulted the urban dictionary for some enlightenment.

1. Woot originated as a hacker term for root (or administrative) access to a computer. However, with the term as coincides with the gamer term, "w00t". "w00t" was originally an trunicated expression common among players of Dungeons and Dragons tabletop role-playing game for "Wow, loot!" Thus the term passed into the net-culture where it thrived in video game communities and lost its original meaning and is used simply as a term of excitement.
Example : "I defeated the dark sorcerer! Woot!"

2. a) An interjection similar to "YAY!" or "Woohoo!" used to express joy or excitement, usually about some kind of accomplishment. Primarily used by gamers, spreading rapidly to anyone who chats online. Gaming origins: We Owned the Other Team or Wonderful Loot (Everquest gaming slang)
Example : woot! I got an A on this test.
b) To express agreement.
Robyn: Eric is such a tool. Let's put packing peanuts in his desk.
Stefanie: woot!
c) As an acronym, can mean Waste of Our Time or Way Out of Topic (online forums) Less common.

A gave me 3 tablettes of chocolate. Woot!

Note :
1. The weather is fair this weekend so I haven't the urge to stay in to bake. I was planning to make some raviolis but I have a feeling that it will be postponed.
2. I took a peek at May's Daring Bakers challenge. It's very exciting!! I'm pumped! Woot!
3. (I didn't overkill the usage, did I?)

Metric measurements and kitchen arithmetic

2009-04-28T23:12:00.000+10:00

1 ounce is equal to 28.35 grams.
The recipe requires 24 ounces of cream cheese.
Golly!
*shriek*

So I halved the base and tiered the cream cheese layer. Geeky chick like me actually do enjoy division and multiplication you see... anyway I am not big on cheesecakes and I had only baked one, once before in my life. Honestly, I'm not even sure characteristics of a good cheesecake, so whilst other daring bakers ran amok improvising the recipe with wild and wonderful flavours, I stuck to what I could see the simplest option; lime. No drama. One third of the recipes makes 5 baby cheesecakes in individual ramekins.

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. Thank you Jenny and Abbey for sharing the recipe.

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake
crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.
3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.
4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.
5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Some variations from JennyBakes:
**Key lime - add zest from one lime to sugar before mixing with cream cheese. Substitute lemon juice, alcohol, and vanilla with key lime juice.
**Cheesecakelets - put in muffin tins, ramekins, or custard cups. Try baking 20-35 minutes, or until still a little jiggly, and cool as before.

Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.
Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!

ps: passionfruit pulp also makes a nice match... though too bad I didn't take any photos. xoxm

Excerpts from a cat's diary

2009-04-26T20:10:00.007+10:00

"Day 183 of My Captivity
My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while I am forced to eat dry cereal. The only thing that keeps me going is the hope of escape, and the mild satisfaction I get from ruining the occasional piece of furniture. Tomorrow I may eat another houseplant.
Today my attempt to kill my captors by weaving around their feet while they were walking almost succeeded, must try this at the top of the stairs. In an attempt to disgust and repulse these vile oppressors, I once again induced myself to vomit on their favorite chair, must try this on their bed.
Decapitated a mouse and brought them the headless body, in attempt to make them aware of what I am capable of, and to try to strike fear into their hearts. They only cooed and condescended about what a good little cat I was. Hmmm, not working according to plan."

I thought I might share this with fellow cat captors. As soon as I finish The Book Thief, I'm going to read the whole diary.

In my household I think Fig is the ruler and I'm the slave. It is rather pathetic how I succumb to his charm and good looks not to mention his meowing protests at his breakfast/lunch/dinner, whilst in fact the only creature who can be outraged with my forgetting to feed him would be Nino II. But then motherly instinct (read: guilt) kicks in and I shower him with a lot of attention. He's a good kid.

Lately I've been liking my cheese bread a lot, they are rather nice. I use my basic bread recipe that you can find in my introduction to Nino II.

Add liberal amount of cheese (normally a mix of grated sharp mature cheddar and parmesan), snippets of rosemary when I have some and a dash of mustard powder because honestly I desperately want to use it before it expires.

et voilà, another lazy blog by me a power blogger. Thanks for dropping by.

Out of office

2009-04-22T22:51:00.001+10:00

Day 1 : I spent all morning yesterday looking for my papers for 2 years worth of tax return, and eventually took the bus to see my accountant. Turned out I owe the government some money rather than getting some back. Disgusting!
Day 2 : I baked my daring bakers challenge... unusually early considering the reveal date is another 5 days or so. Hey by the way... from this month I am also a daring cook! The thrill of waiting for the announcement of new challenges, now times 2.

This isn't the challenge by the by... in case you're wondering. Just a little sumthin I baked for the P's. You see... a month or two ago, when I met T+C for lunch I also planned to bake. Alas! I chose an completely new recipe from Gourmet Traveller which failed, to my horror! So when last friday we planned to meet again, I wanted to make sure the recipe I was going to attempt is fail safe.

One-pan chocolate cake
A recipe of Belinda Jeffery, from Vogue Entertaining + Travel mid-winter 2002, p.51

1/3 cup cocoa powder
75 gr cultured unsalted butter
1/3 cup light olive oil or vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
90 gr good-quality dark chocolate, chopped
250 gr caster sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup buttermilk, sour cream or yoghurt (see note)

To serve :
350 ml thick cream, whipped lightly + Hazelnut praline

Preheat the oven to 150C and butter a 23-24 cm round cake tin. Line the base with buttered baking paper, then dust the tin with flour. Shake out the excess flour and put it aside.

Put the cocoa, butter, oil and water into a fairly large saucepan. Bring to the boil over medium heat, stirring regularly until smooth, then remove from the heat. Add the chocolate and sugar and whisk until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool. When cool, add the egg and vanilla and whisk them in thoroughly. Sift in the flour and baking powder and stir until just combined. Whisk in the buttermilk.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and shake gently to even it out. Bake the cake for about 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre withdraws clean. Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes, then turn out onto the rack, remove the paper and leave to cool completely.
To serve : invert the cake onto a plate. Just before serving, spread the cream on top, using a spoon to swirl it up. To finish, sprinkle some praline over.

Note :
1. Sour cream. I went with the highest fat content option.
2. I added some chopped up tinned pears in order to firstly, sort of satisfy T's request for a fondant au chocolat et aux poires (which this cake is no where close, but nice nevertheless), and secondly to balance the fact that I used sour cream.
3. All in all, quite a nice cake actually... I used couverture chocolate, but next time I might use Green and Black's Maya Gold.
4. Tomorrow I will be back in the office. Boo!

What do you get if you pour boiling water down a rabbit hole?

2009-04-18T22:45:00.001+10:00

Hints:

Answer : Hot cross bunnies.

HA HA! I had never heard of this said to be classic children joke before, I thought it's rather hilarious (albeit the apparent animal cruelty). It's in the article from which I took this recipe. A bit tardy for an Easter themed post, so I left out the cross.

Hot cross buns
Makes 16
Gourmet Traveller magazine Apr'07, p.39

750 gr plain flour, sifted
55 gr caster sugar
2 tsp (14 gr) dried yeast
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
250 gr sultanas
100 gr candied orange peel, coarsely chopped
Finely grated rind of 1 orange
300 ml milk
100 gr unsalted butter, coarsely chopped
1 egg
Glaze:
55 gr caster sugar
1/4 tsp mixed spice

Combine 700 gr flour, sugar, yeast, spices, sultanas, orange peel and rind and 1 tsp sea salt in a bowl. Gently warm milk and butter over a low heat until butter melts and mixture is tepid. Add egg to milk mixture and whisk.

Make a well in the centre of flour mixture, add milk mixture and stir. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes or until smooth. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and stand in a warm place for 40 minutes or until doubled in size.

Knock back dough and cut into 16 equal pieces. Knead each piece into a ball, blace in a lightly greased 22cm-square cake pan, cover with a damp tea towel and stand in a warm place for 40 minutes or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 220°C. Combine remaining flour and 1/4 cup water and stir to a smooth paste. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a fine nozzle. Pipe lines down each row to form crosses. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 200°C and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden. (They are ready when they sound hollow when tapped).

For glaze, combine ingredients with 1/4 cup water in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 1-2 minutes. Brush glaze over hot buns then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

I have a perfectly devine hot cross buns recipe from my Baker book. But for blogsake I decided to venture upon the ravels of the unknown and test a new recipe, adhering to it somewhat rather loosely. Refer to my notes at your own risk bakers.

Notes :
1. Due to the impromptu nature of this baking feat, I used what I could find at home; I swapped raisins for sultanas, and raisins for candied orange peel, lime zest for orange zest.
2. In Baker, the recipe includes a list of spices, a warm blend of cinnamon, cloves, coriander, ginger and nutmeg. I used that rather than allspice, though next time I'd liberally increase the quantity.
3. I only added the spices and fruits towards the last stages of the kneading, to allow the yeast to begin to work before the spices are added. Another tips from Baker.
4. I didn't add spice to the glaze, and I didn't bother to weigh the sugar nor measure the water. No wonder my glaze didn't stay syrupy and the sugar crystalised.
5. Nevertheless, nice buns they were.
6. A belated Happy Easter. xoxm

The apple of my eye

2009-04-13T18:13:00.001+10:00

is my favourite English expression. It is lovely I think. Lovely is my favourite word in the English language by the way. I found a word in a book I'm reading, the Book Thief by Markus Zusak; lovelily. I didn't realise I could add another -ly after lovely. Of course it becomes an instant hit in my vocabulary. (waiting to use it in an opportune gushy sentence actually).

I baked this the other morning and packed some to bring to work to share. Amongst things I make this is the most oft asked recipe, and a bit unlike me to not omit/substitute something but this is one that needs no adjustment. Except for this one time, I added zest of one lemon just because.

"A pleasant hint of lemony aroma marries lovelily"

There! I did it! Lovelily in a sentence laced with soppiness verging on overkill. (I promise you, Markus Zusak is far more elegant writer than I)

Apple and almond batter pudding
Serves 6
A recipe from Vogue Entertaining Cookbook, Autumn/Winter SO+S p.109

120 gr plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
125 gr caster sugar
100 gr ground almonds
2 eggs
a few drops of almond essence
250 gr sour cream
3 Granny Smith apples
25 gr slivered almonds
25 gr extra caster sugar

Preheat oven to 180°C. Sift flour with baking powder and sugar together in a bowl, then mix in ground almonds. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, almond essence and sour cream then add to the dry ingredients, beating until smooth. Peel, core and slice the apples.

Spread half the batter in a buttered 28cm x 25cm baking dish and scatter with half the apples. Add the rest of the batter, then the remaining apples and scatter the slivered almonds and extra sugar on top.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the centre withdraws clean. Cool for 10 minutes. Serve with cream or custard.

Note:
1. I never add any essence. So in fact I do omit something from this recipe actually...
2. No silly kisses as I don't want to appear melodramatic, overly sentimental (and corny) blogger. Bye!

Come back soon sunshine

2009-04-11T11:46:00.000+10:00

Autumn suits me for days are crisp and cool. Lovely days are when ray of warmth shines a plenty. The bureau forecasted showers for tomorrow, day after tomorrow and day after ...*sigh*

Last Christmas, in my office we had Kris Kringle. Having been away I only found the present on my desk after I came back from holiday, wrapped in unassuming plain brown paper. It was this beautiful cookie tin within, a cookie recipe book and 2 cookie cutters. Above all, it's the tin I love, my favourite shade of blue. Identity of the Kringle is not known, I have a few usual suspects... thank you!

Well anyway... last Sunday I suddenly craved for chocolate chip cookies, so I pored over my magazines and cook books to find a recipe. Now, I am not a chocolate chip cookie virgin baker, but I'm not a CCC baker minx either, in fact it must have been years since I last time made a batch. The recipe I tried this time, didn't come from the afore mentioned cookie book, I chose to try a recipe from Delicious, which uses baking powder which is quite common. Another recipe I found in another Delicious uses baking soda, a bit uncommon... typo/tricks/tips? I have a few more recipes nearly all seems to claim to be the best. I might test some out sometime and blog my findings. Betcha that my favourite batch would be one from my very un-American Larousse des desserts.

Double choc chip cookies
Makes 16 (Delicious magazine, Apr'04 p.69)

125 gr unsalted butter, softened
250 gr brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
225 gr plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
100 gr good quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped
100 gr white chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
Place butter and sugar in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until pale. Add vanilla and egg and continue to beat until just combine. Sift in the flour with baking powder and a pinch of salt then fold in. Stir through chunks of chocolate.

Place tablespoonfuls of mixture 4-5cm apart on the tray. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool a little before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Serve with glasses of milk.

Note:
Maybe it's my fault I ended up with some tough cookies. Yes only some, strangely... maybe I over-handled the dough, either that or maybe it's because I completely subbed half of the ingredients:
a. damerara sugar rather than brown, because I thought I had some at home but then apparently not.
b. vanilla from pod rather than extract because I have excessive stock of vanilla pods
c. didn't find any nice white chocolate in the supermarket so I opted for Green and Black's Organic Milk and Maya Gold (not because I'm slightly pretentious but they were on special 2 for $5.00)
d. actually I think I must have used 70 gr + 70 gr of each chocolate and added 100 gr of macadamia nuts

They are all right biscuits I suppose. Score : 6.5 out of 10

a.ban.don [ə-bān'dən]

2009-04-05T00:03:00.005+11:00

–verb (used with object)
1. to leave completely and finally; forsake utterly; desert: to abandon one's farm; to abandon a child; to abandon a sinking ship.
2. to give up; discontinue; withdraw from: to abandon a research project; to abandon hopes for a stage career; to abandon March's daring bakers challenge.

Why! I even bought a pasta maker to pump myself up for this. Last month's challenge was Lasagna of Emilia-Romagna, hmmm with meat ragu that contains veal, pork loin, beef skirt steak, prosciutto and pancetta. Well if you must know, apart from occasional chicken fillets I have not bought raw meat for years. For my cooking I mean, I regularly buy Fig minced kangaroo meat, no sweat. I sort of have relaxed my vegetarianism to the max that I happily wolf down pork and chives dumpings at this little joint on a weekly basis, but I really don't think I've ever bought any raw pork in my whole life.

I thought this challenge a perfect opportunity re-enter the realm of butchery, but Gosh! veal, pork, beef, prosciutto, pancetta... that's a double whammy butcher AND delicatessen. So I chickened out. The movie Chicken Run by the way, with all those poultry wanting to be free range chickens not end up as chicken pies... once stopped me from buying chicken all together. For months.

I didn't refund the pasta maker though it was a very impulse purchase. In fact I've started using it and I love it!!! I've used it 3 times now within the week, and how fun is it to crank out thin layer of pasta sheet!

Pasta all'uovo (ricetta base)
From the Silver Spoon p.268
Serves 4

200 gr plain flour, preferably Italian type 00 plus extra for dusting
2 eggs, lightly beaten
salt

Sift the flour and a pinch of salt into a mound on work surface. Make a well in the centre and add the eggs. Using your fingers, gradually incorporate the flour, then knead for about 10 minutes.

If the mixture is too soft, add a little extra flour; if it is too firm, add a little water. Shape the dough into a ball and leave to rest for 15 minutes. Roll out on a lightly floured surface or use a pasta machine to make a thin sheet, and cut out tagliatelle, lasagne, etc.

Simplissimo.

Note :
1. If you live in Sydney and haven't been to the Chinese Noodle Restaurant, please go.
2. No 1 (Xinjiang noodles) with beef. So good.
3. Pork and chives dumplings, pan fried or boiled.
4. Hot and sour soup
5. Am quite a piglet
6. *oink oink*

Q: Panna cotta ?

2009-03-29T20:40:00.006+11:00

A: No thanks.

I bring stuff to work to share all the time and most often than not I am able to get people to eat it. Strangely, the boy with healthiest of appetite, a most oft recipient of my baking, who'd happily tuck into my crème brulée and crème caramel, declined my offer of panna cotta. Several times. Evvverrry time. (Not offended, just a tad suspicious. Perhaps a traumatic panna cotta incident. Dunno.)

I took a day off work last Thursday, in the morning I had this for breakfast (I subbed double cream with fresh cream, hmmm so it's almost guiltless really), lazed around at home for awhile. Friend cancelled lunch last minute, impromptu I caught a bus towards a beach where I lied on soft warm sand, sunnies on and a good book in my hand to occasionally distract me from the view. Was really delightful!

Panna cotta
From Silver Spoon, p.1030
Serves 6
10 gr gelatine leaves
100 ml milk
500 ml double cream
100 gr caster sugar
1 vanilla pod, slit

Fill a small bowl with water, add the gelatine and leave to soak. Pour the milk into a saucepan and bring to just below simmering point, then remove from the heat. Do not allow it to boil. Drain and squeeze out the gelatine and add to the milk.

Pour the cream into another saucepan, add the sugar and vanilla pod and bring to the boil over a low heat, stirring constantly. Immediately remove the pan from the heat, remove the vanilla pod and stir in the milk mixture.

Pour into ramekins or panna cotta moulds or as per the book, it recommends a rectangular cake tin. Chill in the refrigerator for several hours until set. Turn out on a serving dish and serve.

I like to have mine with raspberry coulis... compliments the richness nicely. I normally use frozen raspberries, the food processor would turn it into an almost sorbet like concoction. Quite luvly.... see ?

Raspberry Coulis
Larousse des desserts p.102
Makes 500 ml
Juice of 1 lemon
750 gr raspberries
80 gr sugar
100 ml water
Puree everything with a food processor. (I can't be bothered to follow the instructions)

Nothing to note really.
*kisses*

Extra extra ! Lunch box blog #1

2009-03-25T23:33:00.003+11:00

Am going to give me 2 points for this because I also made the curry paste. Wheee...!! This is the panaeng curry I made last week by the way, I used the recipe from a Taste of Thailand again. Though I don't think it is meant to look anything like this because the Vatch said that it's supposed to be a rather dry curry. I had to add quite a bit of water to dilute the saltiness, I suspect that I must have not measured the fish sauce correctly? Next time I'll taste test one tablespoon at a time, overall though... pleased with the result. I still have some of curry paste in the fridge, yay!

Panaeng curry
A recipe by Vatcharin Bhumichitr from a Taste of Thailand, p.87 and 90

125 ml or 1/2 cup coconut cream plus 15ml for garnish
30 ml or 2 tbsp oil
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
15ml or 1 tbsp Dry curry paste (recipe to follow)
30 ml or 2 tbsp fish sauce (you've been warned)
5 ml or 1 tsp sugar
180 gr lean beef, diced
2 lime leaves, chopped very finely
15 holy basil leaves
1 long chilli, slivered

In a small pan, gently heat the coconut cream but do not let it boil. In a frying pan or a wok, heat the oil until a light haze appears, add the garlic, fry until golden brown. Add the curry paste and stir fry for a few seconds.

Add the warmed coconut cream (reserving 1 tbsp for garnish), and stir until it curdles and thickens in the oil. Add the fish sauce and sugar, stir. Add the beef, stir and cook gently for 3-4 minutes. Add the lime leaves and holy basil, cook for 1 minute.

This is meant to be a dry curry, but add a little water during cooking if you feel it's drying up too much. It is ready when the beef is cooked through. Serve, garnished with the extra coconut cream and slivered chilli.

Dry curry paste (Panaeng)

10 dried long red chillies, deseeded and chopped
5 shallots, chopped
30 ml or 2 tbsp chopped garlic (about 4 cloves)
2 stalks lemon grass, chopped
2.5 cm piece galangal, chopped
5 ml or 1 tsp ground coriander seed
5 ml or 1 tsp ground cumin
3 coriander roots
5 ml or 1 tsp shrimp paste
30 ml or 2 tbsp roasted peanuts

Using a pestle and mortar or a grinder, blend all ingredients together until they form a smooth paste. You should have about 6 tbsp / 90 ml of paste.

Note :
I confess to have improvised a fair bit here...
1. I subbed beef with chicken.
2. I added water liberally because I think the fish sauce lent a too strong fishy note and left my curry too salty. Was a good move though, because then I could add some vegetables to 'lighten' it up.
3. Coconut cream replaced by coconut milk. Roasted peanuts and coriander leaves and chilli for garnish. How very take away thai.
4. As I write this in a major hurry as am sleepy, this post is officially one of my lousiest I think... This might well be, the first and only lunch box blog.
5. Ah well... I'm going to click 'publish post' and go to bed.
6. Sweet dreams! xoxm

Just Vatch me

2009-03-22T00:25:00.001+11:00

Someone please enlighten me, as to why the letter 'W' is double u in English, but it's double v in French ? I just thought about it and isn't it rather peculiar... and why is it that door isn't pronounced the same way as 'oo' in poor ? or cook ? or book ?

Cookbooks and baking books by the way, I love!! I used to want a big library full of them, but I now tend to be more selective and am content to have few reliable ones. Though I must say that I've been quite spoilt to have been given some nice ones these recent years. So actually I have no excuse not to be able to complete my own challenge this year. My Silver Spoon book alone, has over 2000 recipes! yes it's written on the cover! I'm not short of recipes, it's life that is rather short.

Amongst the few I bought for myself last year, is this picture-less Thai cookery book by Vatcharin Bhumichitr, a Taste of Thailand. No illustration whatsoever! It was of course on sale that's why I got it but it is rather unappealing that I hadn't tested out anything up until a few days ago. Last weekend I made my way to a Thai grocer and got everything I'd need for some pad thai and panaeng curry.

My... my... seldom would I praise myself but I'm quite proud at how my pad thai turned out. I quite like the fact that it's practically meatless... bar the odd tablespoon of dried shrimps. What amazes me and quite don't get how... is the fact that I didn't seem to have to add any seasoning and yet there was a nice balance of salt, sour and sweetness. I must say though, it tastes unlike pad thai from my local thai resto but I think it's yum yum nevertheless.

Pad thai
a recipe from a taste of Thailand p.84
(The total cooking time for this dish shouldn't exceed 2-3 minutes)

4 tbsp (60 ml) oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 egg
4 oz (120 gr) dry Sen Lek noodles (see note), soaked in water for 20 minutes until soft, and drained
2 tbsp (30 ml) lemon juice
1 1/2 tbsp (22.5 ml) fish sauce
1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) sugar
2 tbsp (30 ml) chopped roasted peanuts
2 tbsp (30 ml) dried shrimp, ground or pounded
1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) chilli powder
1 tbsp (15 ml) finely chopped preserved turnip (chi po)
30 gr beansprouts
2 spring onions, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 sprig coriander leaves, coarsely chopped
lemon wedges, to garnish

In a wok or frying pan, heat the oil, add the garlic and fry until golden brown. Break the egg into the wok, stir quickly and cook for a couple of seconds. Add the noodles and stir well, scraping down the sides of the pan to ensure they mix with the garlic and egg.

One by one, add the lemon juice, fish sauce, sugar, HALF the peanuts, HALF the dried shrimp, the chilli powder, the preserved turnip, HALF of the beansprouts, and the spring onions, stirring quickly all the time.

Test the noodle for tenderness. When done, turn onto a serving plate and arrange the remaining peanuts, dried shrimp and beansprouts around the dish. Garnish with the coriander and lemon wedges.

Note :
1. As long as you have all the ingredients pre-chopped and measured, everything comes together in 3 minutes, for real!
2. Couldn't find nice beansprouts and substituted it with cabbage... and I omitted the spring onions because I thought I had some, alas they were beyond dead when I fished them out of the fridge. In the future I think I'll sub it with garlic chives.
3. Sen Lek noodle : a medium flat rice noodle, about 2 mm wide, and usually sold dried.
4. Preserved turnip (chi po) : used only in small amounts, usually chopped fine. Found in Chinese and oriental stores.
5. Don't mistaken chi po with tang chi which is preserved radish! I nearly got the wrong one. In the end I had to ask for the lady man at the cashier whether I got the correct one, and he/she smiled demurely to me and nodded.
6. I got the smallest packet of chopped chi po which is 400 gr, even though I have made pad thai a couple more times last week, I have no idea what else I could do with 375 gr or so of thai preserved turnip. Please contact me if you do.

It's vintage Vogue lemony pop !

2009-03-15T12:49:00.002+11:00

I bought my first Vogue Entertaining when I was in my teens (read: late teen) and here I am now in my *gulp* early thirties! Golly! How time flies! So fast that I tend not to re-read the same book there are so many books I want to read before I die. Likewise there are so very many recipes to try I with much restrain stop myself from using the same ones.

Hummm this is a tried and tested recipe by the way. (I lost control, happens often)

One of my old favourite along with sponge cake with passionfruit cream, and carrot cake. I have a few lemon and poppy recipes but have stuck to only 2 and this is one of them, though I never seem to have bothered making the syrup.

Lemon loaf with poppy seeds
A recipe by Ro Francis’ aunt Mary, Vogue Entertaining Aug/Sep ’96 p.142
Cake :
125 gr butter
1 cup raw sugar (I only used about 2/3 cup)
2 eggs
zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup poppy seeds or to taste

Syrup:
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup water
julienned zest of 2 oranges, 2 lemons and 2 limes

To make the cake : butter and flour a 25 x 8cm loaf tin. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the zest, flour, milk and poppy seeds and mix well. Spoon into the prepared tin and bake on the centre shelf of the oven for 20 minutes or until cooked when a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool.

To make the syrup : combine the juice, caster sugar and water in a small saucepan and stir, over medium heat, until the sugar dissolves. Add the julienned zests and cook until soft and translucent. Drain the zest and reserve the syrup. Spoon the syrup over the cake and pile the drained zest on top.

Note:
In case you think this is a lousy post, FYI I was ready to post yesterday. Then catastrophe happened I don't know what my naughty fingers pressed and pouf! whatever I had typed disappeared and seconds later, even naughtier blogspot auto-saved. Aaarggh!

Wish I had...

2009-03-08T23:43:00.003+11:00

taken a picture of the cherry tomatoes and cherry bocconcinis... I would've come up with a more catchy title for this post. (Alas I didn't)

Uh oh! March the 8th today and ideally I should've posted at least 10 things to make 12 by the end of the month. Doesn't look like it's going to happen, *frown*

unless I devise a plan of attack. *deep frown*

Agent Figgy pulled out from dishwashing duty, and I'll have to fly solo. *gulp* Mission impossible. But I'll try.

This is only my number 5 I think ? (FYI I'm talking my new year's baking resolution, in case you're not following)

Focaccia farcita
A recipe of Eric Treuille & Ursula Ferrigno from Bread (p.104)

2 tsp dried yeast
350 ml water
500 gr strong white flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp olive oil

500 gr cherry tomatoes
150 gr mozzarella or like me, replace with bocconcini
125 gr rocket
rosemary sprigs, for topping

Sprinkle yeast into 250 ml water, stir to dissolve and leave for 5 minutes. Mix flour and salt in a big bowl, make a well and pour in the yeasted water and olive oil. Incorporate the flour, adding the remaining water to form a soft sticky dough. Add more water 1 tablespoon at a time if needed.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth, silky and elastic for about 10 minutes. Put the dough in an oiled bowl and cover, then leave to rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until doubled in size.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Place the cherry tomatoes on a baking pan and sprinkle with 1 table spoon olive oil and season with salt, then bake in a preheated oven at 200°C.

Knock back and divide dough into 2 equal pieces. Leave for 10 minutes to rest, then roll out each piece into a 24cm round and place one on an oiled baking sheet. Arrange the tomatoes, cheese and rocket then seal in the filling using the second round.

Cover the dough loosely with a tea towel, prove until doubled in size about 30 minutes. Use fingertips to gently press into the surface of the dough to form dimples about 1 cm deep. Sprinkle with some salt flakes and 1 tablespoon olive oil then top with rosemary leaves.

Bake in a preheated 200°C oven for 30-45 minutes until golden, then drizzle immediately with sloshes of olive oil and serve warm.

Note :
1. I forgot to dimple the top :( anyhow it turned out quite yummy :)
2. Rocket rocks! but I couldn't find decent ones that day that I had to replace them with baby spinach.
3. I threw away my old measuring cups only to realise that my new pretty ones are not so accurate and I blame them for all my recent failures!! I didn't use all the 350ml water but maybe it's because I wasn't correctly measuring it anyway.
4. It's rainy night and I'm feeling positively mushy. Here's an image I discovered recently and absolutely adore. I am now going to slip under my blanket and watch Amelie until I fall asleep.
5. Good night. xo

Eggs, butter, chocolate, that's all...

2009-03-01T22:42:00.001+11:00

No added sugar! Rather outrageous no ? Only 3 ingredients, and they call us the Daring Bakers!

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

Hummm have I told you lately that I have a tiny fridge ? Consequently I skipped the ice cream challenge... (oups!) So it was an easy month which suited me perfect as I have been feeling mighty discouraged by some baking catastrophes of prior weeks. I left it really late, I attempted the challenge only this morning and what can I say, the Chocolate Valentino was a piece of cake (I know! What a lame pun but I had to, I just had to).

I decided to inaugurate my mini muffin pan, and out came some cute as button rather puffed up mini chocolate cake. Now, I am not out to slag this recipe... but with so few ingredients, I think one is forgiven to say that this cake just doesn't shine on it's own. So I paired mine up with a store-bought coconut macaron from the Lindt café, and some raspberry coulis.

Most things look prettier with a macaron on top (I think).

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes

16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Just who is William Bartlett ?

2009-02-22T00:25:00.003+11:00

Why Granny Smith's good friend of course! (In fact she's rather smitten by his firm flesh, bell-shaped bottom)

Little wikipedia says he has many aliases, my favourite is Williams Bon Chrétien, but in Australia he is known as William Bartlett. Bill Bartlett of the Lemon Pipers isn't Granny Smith's friend, despite the fruity name connection.

It is said that this pear has been around since the 1700s and was discovered by a man called Stair, a schoolmaster who then struck a sale and sold the variety to Richard Williams a nurseryman. In 1799, an American bought the variety and cultivated it in the US soil. Years later, (a man with a strange first name I thought...) Enoch Bartlett bought an estate where Williams pear had been planted, propagated the trees and called the pear after himself.

WBs were on special and were $3 cheaper a kilo than ol' nanna Smith so I considered it wise to spend the extra $3 on potato chips instead.

Tarte aux pommes
A Jean-Luc Poujauran recipe, Elle à Table magazine (Jan/Fev 2000 p.51)
Pour 6 personnes

Pâte brisée
200 gr flour
100 gr butter, softened
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp milk
1 pinch sugar

6 apples reine des reinettes
50 gr butter
70 gr brown sugar
1 tbsp miel d'acacia
2 tbsp almond powder

Prepare the pâte in a big bowl, mix butter with sugar and a pinch of salt and add to it the milk and egg yolk. Mix with a whisk and incorporate flour to form a ball. Leave to rest in the fridge for approximately 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 210°C. Peel and core the apples, cut into 4s then into 8s. In a pan on high heat, cook the apples in the butter, honey and 50 gr of the brown sugar for 10 minutes then leave to cool.

Roll out the dough onto a tart pan and prick the base with fork several times. Sprinkle with the almond powder and remaining sugar and fill it 'tightly' with the apples. Bake for 10 at 210°C then 40 minutes at 160°C.

Note:
1. I sprinkled the top with almond powder and sugar.
2. Again I used my tartelette pans for this recipe, I have fear rolling out any dough for big tart pans.
3. As mentioned I subbed the apples with pears, I'm not sure what is equivalent to reine des reinettes... I used whatever honey I have in my pantry, not knowing where I could find a purveyor of miel d'acacia in Sydney.
4. The pâte brisée was extremely short! I like! I followed the tips from the magazine to leave the dough in the fridge overnight (it gets better with time apparently...) and to leave slightly ajar the oven door in the middle of cuisson for 2 minutes so that the vapour escape.
5. xo

Please explain

2009-02-15T13:57:00.007+11:00

Dear Mr.Ramsay,
I attempted your chocolate tart recipe a few days ago. For next time, maybe you could give me some pointers. I had problems rolling out the dough for the base, it was too soft! So I added more flour! and I refrigerated it for longer than the recommended 30 minutes, in fact 2 days because I sort of lost my courage after trying a few times to see it tearing apart. I wanted to use my new rectangular tart pan but even for my tartelette pans I struggled! In the end I used Jamie's trick and cut the dough into thin discs and moulded it in. Anyhow, I persisted and conquered. The filling was rather lovely, though my pans are shallow and so it wasn't tall enough to be wobbly.

Thank you and if you care to leave a comment, I'd be most delighted.

Yours sincerly,
Melivanilla

ps. The tarts went down well.

Chocolate tart
A Gordon Ramsay recipe, Delicious magazine (Mar'06 p.93)
Serves 6-8

125 gr plain flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder, plus extra to dust
60 gr unsalted butter, softened
60 gr caster sugar
1 large free-range egg
30 gr dark chocolate, melted, cooled
Crème fraîche, to serve

200 gr good quality dark chocolate, melted
300 ml thickened cream
50 ml milk
2 large free-range eggs
100 gr caster sugar
Few drops vanilla extract

Sift flour and cocoa with a pinch of salt. Using electric beaters, beat butter and sugar in a separate bowl until pale and thick. Mix in egg and chocolate, then beat in flour mixture and knead lightly to a smooth dough. Dust hands with flour and form dough into flat disc. Enclose in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 190°C fan-forced (210°C conventional). Lightly grease a 22cm loose-bottomed tart pan. Roll out dough on a lightly floured board or between sheets of baking paper just larger than the size of the pan. Use to line pan, pressing into sides and trimming to fit. Chill for 15-20 minutes.

Prick base, then line with foil and fill with pastry weights or uncooked rice. Sit pan on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Remove weights and bake for 5 minutes, then cool. Reduce oven to 150°C fan-forced (170°C conventional).

For filling, brush a third of the melted chocolate over the tart base. Bring the cream and milk to the boil in a pan, then slowly pour onto the remaining chocolate, stirring until smooth. Whisk together the eggs, sugar and vanilla, then combine with chocolate cream.

Place the tart pan on a baking sheet on the middle oven shelf and pull halfway out. Pour in the filling and ease the shelf back in. Bake for 40-45 minutes. The filling will wobble, but sets in the pan. Coll and dust with good quality cocoa. Serve with crème fraîche.

Note : I iPhoto (but I hope you won't notice). I do not like food photographs that are digitally enhanced to the max to bring out their 'natural' colours which I guess was supposedly to enliven the object. It tickles me! but not in the nice way! Can you please let me know if my photos look too done up? Muchas gracias. x

Long live Nino II

2009-02-07T00:17:00.002+11:00

When it comes to raising a sourdough starter, I'm not completely clueless! Over the past four years or so, I've raised a few... but all sadly 'killed' by my then, lack of motherly instinct. My latest one Nino II, I only started about 2 weeks ago or so, rather capricous at the beginning, feigning death and all, but I never let him starve (thus far) so nowadays he is a well-behaved young wild yeast.

The first time I made my own starter, I used a recipe from Baker by Dean Brettschneider and Lauraine Jacobs. It is a long recipe with feeding schedule of how much to feed and when, it was a success! Revelation! Jubilee and amazement! Nowadays I am too lazy to be too precise of how much flour and water needed to refresh the boy, though I read somewhere that it's crucial. As for me, I feed Nino around half of his body mass, approximately, twice a day. When I have nothing to blog about, I might acquaint you with him and type up the recipe for the starter which is very very detailed and long! The bread recipe though, I'm happy to share it now. (The basic recipe for my bread also comes from the same book, it's very simple and rather excellent)

Organic Sourdough Bread
makes 3 big loaves or 18 small rolls (I usually make one third of this recipe)

1 kg organic white flour
300 gr organic sourdough starter (pane acido)
600 ml filtered water
20 gr sea salt

Sieve the flour onto work surface and make a well. Add pane acido and water, mixing well by hand and knead dough until the ingredients are well combined.
Put the dough into a bowl and cover. Leave for 20 minutes to rest. Add the sea salt and continue to knead by hand for about 10-15 minutes.

Lightly oil a bowl large enough to allow the dough to double in bulk. Put the dough in the bowl and cover. Leave in a warmish place for 3 hours.
Gently knock back the dough in the bowl, this will deflate it slightly. Cover again and leave for another 60 minutes.

Shape the loaf/rolls and leave for a final proof for approximately 2.5-3 hours.
Preheat the oven to 240°C.
If you want to score the loaves, do it now using a razor blade or sharp knife.

Bake for 20 minutes then turn the heat down to 220°C, if necessary turn them around. For the remaining baking time, leave the door slightly ajar to thicken and dry the crust. After 30-35 minutes the loaves will be ready. Cool on a wire rack.

Note:
1. I'm especially fond of the 'mie' of these rolls I made. It has air holes!
2. I cut the long recipe short, and I only proof the dough once. Normally I would start the dough before I go to bed, shape it, ready to bake first thing in the morning.
3. These rolls has chopped olives and rosemary added, my other favourite variants are walnut, with or without raisin and just plain olive.
4. I add gluten to my flour to make it 'stronger' to the ratio of 5gr per 100gr of flour.

ps. Am I going to be yeastspotted by yeastspotting wild yeast ?

In bloom

2009-01-31T00:10:00.008+11:00

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux. Such thoughtful hosts they are... aim to please all; providing optional tuile recipes for savoury lovers and alternative bakers.

My reaction when I found out that we were doing tuiles I must admit, was tepid... a bit boring I thought. Only until I churned my little brain for ideas that I got rather excited. Concocted many lofty plans in my little head, all seem very sound and foolproof. Days, weeks passed until Monday I let out a little shriek realising that posting date was looming... lofty plans got canned (don't think they are executable anyway). Luckily we were only to attempt 1 of the recipes *pheew* but one condition was that we were to serve tuiles with a light accompaniment. Finally started the batter on Wednesday, left it in the fridge overnight and baked for hours (yes, hours!) on Thursday night. It was great fun though I couldn't help but yelp ever so often as I twisted and turned the hot tuiles.

Thankfully they turned out as nice as they are rather pretty, but I'm a bit bias. Of course.

Tuiles
Makes: 20 small or 6 large
Preparation time batter 10 minutes, waiting time 30 minutes, baking time: 5-10 minutes per batch

65 grams softened butter (not melted but soft)
60 grams sifted icing / confectioner’s sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar (7 grams or substitute with a dash of vanilla extract)
2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
65 grams sifted all purpose flour
1 table spoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice, optional
Butter/spray to grease baking sheet

Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not overmix.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template, press the stencil on the baking sheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. Mix a small part of the batter with the cocoa and a few drops of warm water until evenly colored. Use this colored batter in a paper piping bag and proceed to pipe decorations if you wish.

Bake tuiles in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from baking sheet and proceed to shape/bend them in the desired shape. These tuiles have to be shaped when still warm, you might want to bake a small amount at a time or maybe put them in the oven to warm them up again. Or: place a baking sheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable.

Note :
1. So pressed for time... I didn't manage to make the lime mousse I had previsioned (in my head I imagined roses with mini quenelles of barely green lime mousse), so crème pâtissière would have to do.
2. It took me hours to bake these because I could only shape 4 'petals' at the most before they start to harden. Had I made them all into roses, I would have ended a grouchy sleep deprived girl (with blistered fingers), so I turned the rest into giant tuiles aux amandes. Miam!

Feelin' hot hot hot

2009-01-24T21:07:00.006+11:00

Decidedly, me and Fig are not liking the crazy heatwave of the past few days! In fact in my household only Nino II enjoys balmy weather. Nino II by the way is my pet cockroach. More about him later.

Hence, except for the one crazy evening when I stubbornly decided to bake the pecan and olive buttermilk bread, I haven't turned on the oven for days. Today I made these Vietnamese spring rolls for lunch, absolutely yummisimo!! No heating necessary.

Goi Cuon (Fresh Spring Rolls)
serves 4

3 ounces rice vermicelli
8 large rounds dried rice paper (banh trang)
1 cup shredded iceberg lettuce
1/4 cup fresh bean sprouts
1/4 cup peanuts, coarsely chopped
Leaves from a bunch of mint (vietnamese of course)
Leaves from a bunch of coriander
16 small prawns, cooked and peeled
16 flat garlic chives
serve with nuoc cham

Pour boiling water over noodles in a bowl and leave for 6-7 minutes. Drain, then transfer to a saucepan of boiling water and cook for 1 more minute. Rinse in cold water and drain again.

Dunk each rice paper round in warm water for a few seconds until soft. Spread out to drain on serving plates.

On each paper, put some shredded lettuce, noodles, bean sprouts, peanuts, mint and coriander, and fold the rice paper toward the centre to form a firm roll. Tuck in 2 prawns, fold in ends of rice paper, and put 2 garlic chives in the crease so they protrude by about 1 inch. Roll into a neat sausage shape. The rice paper will stick to itself and hold the shape. Serve with nuoc cham for dipping.

Nuoc Cham (Vietnamese Dipping Sauce)
2 red chillies, sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
3 tbsp fish sauce (such as nam pla or nuoc mam)
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp white rice vinegar
1 tbsp water
1 tsp sugar

Pound or blend chillies with garlic. Add fish sauce, lime juice, vinegar, water, and sugar.

Leftover that put a smile to my face. Recipes taken from Noodle by Terry Durack, a book I had coveted for awhile, a Christmas present I bought for myself.

Note:
1. So yes I did switch on the stove to boil some water.
2. The nuoc cham was lip smackingly good! and not as sweet as ones I normally get in Vietnamese eateries here in Sydney.
3. I used rather large prawns not small ones. Figgy ate like a royal on big juicy prawns this afternoon, having endured hardship living in my sweltering little joint these past few days. (and a girl *blush* ate like a piglet).

Now back to Nino II. Ok... so of course he not a cockroach! Nino II is the successor to Nino I my sourdough starter that I had to discard before I left for Christmas holidays. (Before, I used to forget and ignored his feeding time, but then I came across Pim's blog about Bob. I thought that was a nice idea so I gave mine a name too. Nino after Nino Quincampoix. Ever since he had a name I fed him more regularly and didn't leave him to starve too often.)

ps: because now it seems that I'm very behind on my NY resolution, I'm rather desperate and have changed the T&Cs that even cooking now would count. So this is my first of 50. Yay!!

Bonjour!

2009-01-18T23:15:00.002+11:00

I thought it's about time I got serious and bake something on my resolutions list. I don't need a time line to see that I am a bit behind schedule.

I have had better than these, of course. But I can't help feeling proud for even attempting Mr Hermé's recipe. Mmmm... my third attempt actually (which should have made me even more proud to have had the courage to reattempt the recipe, what with mediocre results the last 2 times).

I braced myself with the thought that if other bloggers could do it, I can too. Astrid is partial towards Pierre Hermé's recipe... and she has attempted 4 times with various degree of success, read her trials and tribulations at La cerise. The following are some links to other blogs I will read in my spare time for inspiration and tips on croissant making La mia cucina Culinary concoctions by Peabody Jumbo empanadas Boastful baker Gorgeous and delicious Cafe Fernando Brown eyed baker La tartine gourmande Lovescool And then I do the dishes Sticky goey creamy chewy Joe Pastry Louis La Vache Sarah cooks Sarah Meyer Walsh Veronica's test kitchen Delicious days All things edible Cream puffs in Venice Tartelette

FYI I am no croissants connoisseur... but I'm a bit of a snob, I'd prefer not to eat them if they are not made with 100% butter. I like to eat it plain, or maybe with a bit of jam and a cup of tea. Pains au chocolat are reserved only for occasions when I feel like I could do with a little love.

Pâte à croissants
Preparation 20 minutes
Rest time 5.5 hours minimum
Makes 500 gr

15 gr butter
5 gr yeast
80 - 85 ml water
210 gr flour T45 (see note)
4 gr (1 small tsp) salt
30 gr sugar
5 gr (1 tsp) full cream milk powder
125 gr butter (at temperature ambiant)
1 egg yolk (for egg wash)

In a little saucepan, melt the 15 gr butter. In another bowl, mix yeast and water. In a bigger bowl, sieve in flour then add salt, sugar and milk powder. Eventually add the melted butter and yeast. Knead until dough is 'homogene', if it's too firm add a little bit more water.

Cover with cling wrap and leave to proof until it doubles in size for 1-1.5 hours in a warm place. Punch dough lightly with your knuckle to release carbon gas produced by fermentation. Recover with cling wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 1 hour until it doubles in size again. Punch it the second time and this time rest the dough in the freezer for half an hour.

Soften the 125 gr of butter with spatula. Use a rolling pin to roll out dough into a 3:1 rectangle with straight angles. Use your fingers to 'spread' half of the butter on 2/3 of the rectangle lengthwise, and do a 'tour simple', then another tour simple WITHOUT butter.

Put in the freezer for 30 minutes then 1 hour in the fridge and repeat the same with the rest of the butter. One tour simple with butter than one more without butter. Half an hour in the freezer and 1 hour in the fridge.

Shaping the croissants now. Roll out the dough until it is about 6 mm thin, and cut out into triangles of 14cm x 16 cm. Roll each triangle inwards from the base towards the 'summit'. Place on a baking pan lined with baking paper, and brush with egg wash (egg yolk thinned with a bit of water). Leave to rest until they double in size (1 hour it says in the book but mine took much much longer than that!)

Preheat oven to 220°C. Brush them again with eggwash the second time and bake for 5 minutes at 220°C, then another 10 minutes at 190°C.

Note :
1. Flour type 45 apparently is approximately equal to pastry flour rather than bread flour.
2. Butter should be malleable but not too soft that it melts in your hand.
3. I try to make the recipe seems to sound as simple as possible, but actually it is not something for the faint hearted. Attempt at your own risk of deceptions and sleep deprivation. It is however, fantastic fun! The most exciting recipe I have attempted for many months, so be kind to yourself and give it a go!!

ps. Lovely homemade apricot jam is Christmas present from Puce. Also, notice that Figgy wasn't very impressed with my croissants as some were a tad too brown!
pps. Hummmm... in case you're wondering, yes cat hairs have been found floating around stuff I give out to people. *blush*

The one that ticks all the boxes

2009-01-11T23:52:00.010+11:00

I'm happy to say that in recent years I've found the one I'm settling down with for the rest of my life. Monsieur Hermé's recipe for crème caramel, mais oui! Not too eggy, nor too firm, and very vanilla-y. Tick tick BIG tick.

My first bake of the year... thought I'd start gently with something nice and simple. Part of my répertoire. Definitely doesn't count towards achieving my resolution.

Crème caramel
pour 4 personnes

1 litre full cream milk
4 eggs
3 egg yolks
3 vanilla beans
350 gr sugar
60 gr water

The night before, scrape the inside of vanilla bean into a pot, add milk and bring to boil. Leave to infuse overnight in the fridge. The next day, take out the beans and reboil milk.

In another bowl, whisk eggs with 200 gr of the sugar for about 30 seconds and pour in the hot milk whilst whisking non stop. Sieve into a clean bowl and leave to rest for 15 minutes. Remove the bubbles that may appear on top and set aside.

Cook the rest of the sugar with the water until you obtain caramel of a beautiful shade of dark amber and at once stop cooking, remove from heat and immerse the pot in a bowl filled with ice water. Pour into ramekins whilst caramel are still liquid, and move it all around the ramekin to line the sides. Pour in the milk.

Cook in a 150°C oven for 2 hours over a wired rack on a bain marie. Afterwards leave to cool then store in the fridge covered overnight.

To remove from the mould, use a knife gently along the sides of ramekin and tap the bottom gently. Serve very cold.

Note : I'm a recipe rebel, sorry Pierre... but I made several minor adjustments.
1. I halve the recipe and normally use 6 x 125ml ramekins. Everything in moderation... it's a new year after all.
2. 2 hours??? Pierre you must be joking! That's way too long. 45 minutes top for me, otherwise they'd be too firm.
3. I really like the consistency of the caramel syrup from the caramel cake I made for November's daring bakers. I used that recipe (halved) for my last batch and the result was very pleasing.
4. Otherwise, for 1/2 litre of milk I use 75 gr of sugar.

Gone in 360 seconds. (Cos I ain't no pig)

Dishwasher required

2009-01-10T01:14:00.004+11:00

No monetary remuneration. Apply within.

Inspired by the likes of the Julie/Julia Project, and Sarah Discovers How to Eat... I am to commit myself to a personal baking challenge this year, on top of the monthly Daring Bakers challenges. By the way, regretfully I couldn't carry out December's because.... (don't laugh!) I don't have a freezer :(.
(I would have loved to make une Bûche de Noël. What a bummer! *sigh* See amazing results here, here and here or click on db's logo for a complete list of daring bakers.)

So! Here are my baking resolutions for 2009 :
1. 50 recipes in 365 days, sweet or savoury... old tested recipes don't count, crap results certainly don't count.
2. 3 versions of pàte à croissant... Pierre Hermé, Michel Roux, and Lenôtre.
3. Pluck up my courage and reattempt macarons making.
4. Bake better sourdough breads like this.

That's it! Nothing too crazy... Me and little kitchenette will give it a red hot go.

Stay tuned.

xo

ps. Figgy, you're fired!

Woof woof !

2009-01-04T23:49:00.012+11:00

Oh dear! It's Sunday night and I forgot to blog! I could've just blog any other time except that I wouldn't want to break my new years resolution so soon.... (that is to post something every Sunday night).

I haven't had time to bake as work has been demanding these days and the thought of having to wash the mixing bowls and pans leaves me cold.

Therefore let me introduce you formally to Brandy and Brownie, my parents dogs. The third one is of course little Molly.

Brandy used to sleep in my room when I went home to my parents, though these past few years she had became very attached to mum and follows her around when she's home and would wait near the front door for her when she goes out. If mum goes on a trip, she sometimes wouldn't eat for a couple of days! Her other activities: lounging around keeping dad company when he reads newspapers, and mouse hunting.

Beautiful... isn't she ? A relatively newbie to our home is Brownie, in fact last Christmas was the first time that I met her... and yet she must have heard stuff about me because she snuggled up to me straight away! She's such a darling, rather shy and sits with her front legs crossed... adorable.

Little Molly Monster is crazy about me! She couldn't help but get quite ecstatic when she sees me and with her sharp baby claws jump around my legs. A little baby she still is, every so often she would collapse without warning and power nap.

Note : Figgy, should you read this, let it be a reminder that I may replace you one day for a poodle if you give me too much attitude!

Punctuality as you can see, isn't my forte

2008-12-28T22:48:00.004+11:00

Dear ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY and Z,
(Unless your name is 2pac or 50cents, I don't think I miss anybody)
Seasons Greetings! I hope you had a merry one!

A little snapshot of Christmas morning, at home.

Mum, my niece CAL, and Brandy (who follows mum around the house and often waits for her at the front door if she isn't home).

Note : Blog re: baking shall resume in full swing next week... in case you're wondering.

Meet little Miss Molly

2008-12-19T15:30:00.007+11:00

A little pup my parents recently adopted. Adorable but has rather sharp claws!

Whilst I'm away Fig stays at Dante's. For your interest, some news of him can be found here.

Vogue E+T vs me

2008-12-07T22:53:00.003+11:00

Vogue Entertaining and Travel, mid-winter'01. Photography by Ben Dearnley

Yes, I know that I was setting myself a crazy challenge... but I really thought that I could take a decent picture of a chocolate pudding, not unlike above. Therefore this morning I baked with a mission, i.e. to photograph the pudding just as they came out of the oven all puffed and lovely with a dollop of cream on top and a drizzle of hot chocolate sauce. I had made it on two occasions, so I knew that after awhile the lovely pudding that had risen just slightly off the brim would shrivel and sink. I had only one chance, one pudding to play with. I was to bring the rest (yes, in their deflated condition) to lunch at T+C's place.

For the sake of self improvement, I noted some things I would have done otherwise next time : I should have heated the chocolate sauce a bit more to thin it out a bit, and it would help the cream to loosen up (first mistake). Second mistake was that I poured too much sauce and the weight of it flattened the top.

Fatal mistake, I then decided to take the pudding out of the ramekin, hoping that I would get it out intact, but neeeeoooww it was a rather awkward affair. So yeah, the result was an easy victory to Vogue E+T and a rematch between me and Ben has already been scheduled for sometime this week before I leave for holidays. Hopefully next time my pudding will look rather sophisticated and delicate and not so rustic.

Pink table, this morning at approximately 10 am. Photography by yours truly

Creamy chocolate puddings with chocolate sauce
(serves 8)

1 cup milk
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
60 gr butter
35 gr plain flour
175 gr dark chocolate
5 egg yolks
2/3 cup caster sugar
1 tbsp Grand Marnier
6 eggwhites
a pinch of salt

Chocolate sauce:
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup cream
40 gr butter
180 gr good quality cooking chocolate, grated
To serve : thick cream

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Butter 8 x 250ml soufflé dishes and set aside.
Bring the milk to the boil in a saucepan with the vanilla bean, then remove from the heat.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a separate heavy-based saucepan, stir in the flour, mixing well to incorporate and cook for a few seconds. Add the chocolate and stir until melted.

Remove the vanilla bean from the milk, pour in the chocolate mixture, and whisk well so there are no lumps.

Beat the egg yolks with half the sugar until the yolks are pale and thick. Add the cooked chocolate mixture and Grand Marnier, stirring well to combine.

Beat eggwhites with the salt until they hold soft peaks. Gradually add the remaining sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.Carefully fold the chocolate mixture into the eggwhites.

Spoon into the prepared dishes and bake on the centre shelf of the preheated oven for 16-18 minutes or until the puddings are well risen.

To make the chocolate sauce : while the puddings are cooking, put the brown sugar, cream and butter in a saucepan and heat until the sugar has dissolved, then add the grated chocolate. Stir until melted. The sauce should have pouring consistency.

To serve: pass the cream and hot chocolate sauce separately to spoon into the centre of each hot pudding.

Note : the pudding on its own is light and lovely, even when it has sunken... all the three times I made these, they went down very well. I pre-made the chocolate sauce a day earlier and stored it in the fridge, naturally I didn't use all of the 2 cups of brown sugar. Also because I only have little 125ml ramekins, I baked it for only about 12 minutes or so.

I dare say caramel cake is going to be rather sweet

2008-11-30T20:52:00.000+11:00

Hummmm... and so, I confess to having cut the amount of sugar of the recipe (oops!). I'm sorry to have broken a rule (already) but visiting my dentist absolutely terrifies me!

Anywhooo... enough confessing now back to business.

This month was my first ever daring bakers challenge! The recipe we had to recreate was Caramel Cake with Caramelised Butter Frosting courtesy of Shuna Fish Lydon from the Eggbeater. Our hosts were Dolores from Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity, Alex from Blondie and Brownie, Jenny from Foray into Food, and Natalie from Gluten-a-Go-Go. Nice to be acquainted with you all. Ok, enough introduction now back to business.

The cake itself was quite simple to make I found... I made the caramel syrup a day ahead and the frosting the day after. Yes, a three day baking bonanza basically. The result, a dense but quite moist cake of lovely caramel shade with caramel flavour nicely coming through. Not the most delicate I must say... in fact quite heavy indeed. I adjusted the amount of sugar for the frosting and only made half a batch, just enough to blanket the cake.

Original posting of the recipe can be found here.
I am including metric conversion below for fellow metric bakers.

Caramel cake with caramelised butter frosting

10 tablespoons or 140 gr unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/4 cups or 280 gr granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup Caramel Syrup (see recipe below)
2 each eggs, at room temperature
splash vanilla extract
2 cups or 250 gr all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup or 250 ml milk, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350F or 180C.

Butter one tall (2 – 2.5 inch deep) 9-inch cake pan.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt & cream until light and fluffy.

Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.

Sift flour and baking powder.

Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients. {This is called the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.}

Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform. Turn batter into prepared cake pan.

Place cake pan on cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan. Set first timer for 30 minutes, rotate pan and set timer for another 15-20 minutes. Your own oven will set the pace. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool cake completely before icing it.

Cake will keep for three days outside of the refrigerator.

Caramel syrup

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup water (for "stopping" the caramelisation process)

In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush. Turn on heat to highest flame. Cook until smoking slightly: dark amber.

When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and be prepared to step back.

Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers. {Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.}

Note: For safety reasons, have ready a bowl of ice water to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin.

Caramelised butter frosting

12 tablespoons or 170 gr unsalted butter
1 pound or 453 gr confectioner’s sugar, sifted
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons caramel syrup
Kosher or sea salt to taste

Cook butter until brown. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, set aside to cool.

Pour cooled brown butter into mixer bowl.

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, add confectioner's sugar a little at a time. When mixture looks too chunky to take any more, add a bit of cream and or caramel syrup. Repeat until mixture looks smooth and all confectioner's sugar has been incorporated. Add salt to taste.

Caramelised butter frosting will keep in fridge for up to a month.
To smooth out from cold, microwave a bit, then mix with paddle attachment until smooth and light

Note : Hurrah!! It's official! I am now listed on the daring bakers blogroll!

Four pots of crème brûlées and a batch of mayonnaise later

2008-11-29T17:08:00.001+11:00

I had in my fridge, enough egg white to meringue my cat if I want to. But I didn't... after all, despite all his mischievous activities (of late) and rather bossy attitude (constant), I do have a soft spot for him.

Now, I'm not sure why this delicate little biscuit is called almond bread. By the by, if there is one recipe that is going to make me rich, this is the one. I can not believe how much they charge for a little packet in my local grocer. I suppose it is kind of laborious to thinly hand slice trays and trays of these but I'm inclined to think the professional must have some sort of machinery to speedily cut them with even thickness. Unless... they are produced by some biscotti cutting pro Italian nonnas who would probably be a bit peeved with me as I'm going to share the recipe. Don't worry nonnas, I have very very scarce audience.

Almond Bread
makes hundreds (literally)

200 gr egg whites
180 gr caster sugar
180 gr plain flour
180 gr raw almond

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a rectangle pan with baking paper.
Use an electric mixer unless you have strong arm...

Beat egg whites until firm peaks form, then gradually whisk in sugar.
Beat until sugar has dissolved and the meringue is thick and glossy.
Use a rubber spatula and gently fold in flour and almond.
Spoon mixture into pan and use spatula to flatten the surface.

Bake for 40-45 minutes until top is lightly brown and quite firm to touch.
Leave to cool on wire rack, then wrap with aluminium foil and chill in the fridge overnight to ease slicing.

Cut the loaf into several columns of approximately say 5-7cm then slice thinly (not unlike slicing bread) with serrated knife (rather fine serrated knife and not big toothed bread knife sort). I normally do this in batches, uncut loaf can sit happily in the fridge wrapped for a few days.

Place sliced 'bread' on baking trays and bake gently until dry and crisp, in a 40°C oven for about 1 hour. I wouldn't go any higher than 40-50°C otherwise, the biscuits will take on a bit of colour.

Recipe adapted from a book by Christine Manfield, Paramount Desserts. An excellent recipe may I say.

When I was a wee little baker

2008-11-23T23:28:00.003+11:00

I played with biscuit dough, pressed it with my tiny thumb through decorative nozzle and made little flower biscuits. When I was a juvenile baker, I started making bread. Sweet yeasted golden buns, fluffy and soft like cotton balls.

I'm an adult baker girl now... more than ever I seek solace in preparing food. I do not suggest, I repeat I do not suggest that I am mentally unsteady, perhaps a tad melancholy and in bread baking I find, one of the gentlest therapy to clear the mind.

Cheese Loaf
makes 1 loaf

2 tsp dried yeast
350 ml water
500 gr strong white flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
250 gr Gruyère grated

I substituted Gruyère with a handful of parmesan and 200 gr tasty/cheddar cheese.
When I made this the other night, I planned to bake it in the morning so I used only 1 tsp of yeast. My loaf rose slowly overnight in the fridge.

Sprinkle yeast into 100 ml of the water in a bowl. Place flour in a large bowl, make a well and pour in the yeasted water.Use a wooden spoon to draw in enough flour in to the yeast to form a thickish paste, and leave to 'sponge' for about 20 minutes.

Pour the remaining water and use your hand to incorporate the flour to form a firm moist dough.At this stage, add the olive oil and salt. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes, adding flour if necessary.

When smooth and elastic, knead in grated cheese. Shape into a loaf and place in a rectangle baking pan, or just a baking tray if you prefer. Liberally sprinkle cheese on top, and leave to rest in the fridge overnight, ready to pop in the oven as you rise from slumber.

Preheat oven to 180-200 degrees, bake for 40-50 minutes. Cover with foil if top gets too brown too quickly.

Note : The slower a dough rises the more chance it has to develop flavour and texture. If you are using 2 tsp of yeast, your dough will rise faster. Letting it to rise twice therefore would be advised, i.e. leave the dough to rise until double in size for 1 1/2 hours. Knock back and shape bread into a loaf, then prove dough until it rises and slightly puffy about 45 minutes. Sprinkle with extra cheese, then bake away.

Recipe adapted from Bread a book by Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno (Pain au Fromage p.98) present from A my birthday last year.

Nationwide best seller

2008-11-16T21:52:00.010+11:00

French women don't get fat. The secret of eating for pleasure by Mireille Guiliano.

My copy was given by my sister S a few years ago, sitting pretty all this while on the bookshelf unread. Curiously, as I flipped the pages I noted that croissant and mousse au chocolat are on the recipe index. I am thinking that I should probably start reading it and learn the mastery because I'm not French = I get fat. Oh yes I do.

Alas! Crème brûlée I love! And I make it relatively frequent now that I have a mini blowtorch. In my humble opinion, it shouldn't be that bad for you. From time to time I have it in the morning in place of a pot of yoghurt actually...

Crème brûlée
(A few different CB recipes I have tried. Many a time I have made them that I came up with my own version)
Makes 4 servings

4 egg yolks
200 ml milk
200 ml cream
1 vanilla pod
60 gr sugar
extra sugar for top

As a rule I use 1 egg yolk and 15 gr of sugar for 100 ml of liquid (50:50 milk/cream). So depending on how many servings I want to make, I use the same ratio.

Use the freshest eggs you can find, and organic I believe is best. Once, I splurged on organic milk and cream. Super duper!

Scrape the inside of lovely vanilla pod into a saucepan, throw the pod in as well for good measure. Add to it, milk and cream.

Heat slowly and before it gets to boil, remove from heat. Leave to infuse for half an hour or so.

Heat oven to 120-130 degrees. Place in it a baking pan half filled with water for the bain marie.

In a big bowl, mix the egg yolks and sugar with a whisk until sugar dissolves. The mixture should feel quite creamy and light.

Add milk mixture to the egg yolk whilst whisking lest they curdle. (Chances are they won't because the milk should have cooled)

Sieve this mixture a few times before pouring into the ramekins (125ml ramekins are perfect). I recommend removing froth that appear on top.

I also recommend adding things such as raspberries or rhubarb compote for variation.

Place them in bain marie and bake for 40 minutes approximately or until they set but the tops should still be quite wobbly.

Leave to cool and store in refrigerator overnight or at least a few hours before serving.

If you have blowtorch, great! Easy peasy... sugar the top, cover everything so they caramelise evenly and fire away. I normally would return them to the fridge for 15-20 minutes before serving, though most sources say serve immediately.

If you don't own a blowtorch I'm afraid I am in no position to give you advice on how to use your oven griller to caramelise the top. (I'm sorry but I had rather disastrous result last time I tried) Please do your own google research.

Note : I figured out how I can insert accents. Yay!

Uh oh!

2008-11-15T12:34:00.016+11:00

A few days ago I might have just committed one of the 7 deadly sins that is greed.

I went completely cuckoo and bought myself excessive amount of vanilla pods, one of my very favourite things... My only excuse is that it was an amazingly good buy... so good that I felt almost giddy with excitement.

Note: I have already given out some of my pods as penance... (I am still left with 58). My plan is also to share my vanilla laced creations with precious ones (enough virtue to let me off the hook I should hope).

Thank you Mr Postman!

2008-11-09T19:27:00.018+11:00

One fine morning, something exciting got delivered to my desk at work. It was the long awaited copy of Elle a Table magazine, first of a one year subscription thoughtfully given to me for my birthday by A & B.

The photos are oh so lovely! I am truly blown away by how beautiful the food are presented. I am not big on red meat, but never has hamburger 'maison' looked better.

Gateau tatin aux pommes looks especially bon, and it was indeed tres bon.

The recipe seems to be simple enough, though some internet research proved to be prudent (and saved me from calamitous ending). Apparently it is something of tradition to use yoghurt container as a measurement device in France. In Australia I find one individually portioned pot is too much even for a yoghurt fancier such as myself (a rather gigantesque 175-200ml per container). In France an average pot comes in a more sensible size of 125ml, when measuring your ingredients please keep this in mind. My googling prowess also found that in France a packet of levure chimique is 11 grams.

Pardon the slapdash translation... or if you are so inclined, a French version of this recipe is available on Elle a Table's website.

Gateau Tatin Aux Pommes

3 apples
40 gr butter
3/4 pot of melted butter
2 soup spoonful of sugar
2 pots of sugar
1 pot of yoghurt
3 pots of flour
1 sachet (11 gr) of baking powder
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Butter a 22cm round cake pan.

Finely slice the apples and cook in a pan with the 40 gr of butter, caramelise for 2-3 minutes with the 2 spoonfuls of sugar.

Arrange the caramelised apples in the cake pan.

In a bowl, whisk yoghurt with the 2 pots of sugar and a pinch of salt.

Add to it the flour and baking powder.

Incorporate the eggs and the melted butter. Mix well until combined.

Pour over the apples, bake for about 40 minutes approximately.

Note : Alternatively one can replace 1 pot of flour with 1 pot of almond or hazelnut meal. An advice that I duly followed.

Cat in charge

2008-11-02T19:52:00.009+11:00

Ciao! I'm Figaro. Pleased to meet you.

Miss has been unwell all week.

I therefore forbade her to do any baking and blogging to get much needed rest.

Said that I wouldn't help her do the dishes... didn't think she could face a sinkful of dirty dishes.

Sure enough she sank back into bed and laid next to me.

Till next time,

xoxo

Fig.

Rosemary, check! Olives... check!

2008-10-25T20:47:00.013+11:00

Pecan... check! Parmesan yes, tasty cheese... in! Mix these into dry ingredients, add buttermilk, transfer dough into a loaf pan. A few rosemary sprigs here and there, some extra chopped pecan for crunch, flakes of sea salt strewn on top, et hop in the oven.

Especially! If you have an army of kitchen fairies who will do the chopping, grating and slivering for you, I encourage you to give this one a go! I on the other hand, hand chop everything myself... no kitchen fairy around only a cat who prowls about observing my knife technique. Still! I would make this again and again for it is simply scrumptious.

Quick Pecan, Olive & Buttermilk Bread

Makes 1 large loaf

325 gr plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp mustard powder
70 gr grated parmesan
1/2 cup (60 gr) grated good-quality tasty cheese or gruyere
120 gr pecans, toasted and roughly chopped plus extra pecans, sliced, for topping
80 gr pitted black olives, slivered
2 tsp finely chopped rosemary leaves, plus extra sprigs for topping
2 1/2 tbsp olive oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten, plus 1 extra yolk mixed with 2 tsp water
1 1/4 cups (310 ml) buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a large (6cm-deep, 13cm x 23cm) loaf pan and line with greased baking paper.

Sift flour, baking powder, soda, mustard and 1 tsp each of salt and pepper in a large bowl. (Personally I used slightly less salt than 1 tsp)

Add cheeses, nuts, olives and rosemary, and mix well with a wooden spoon.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, 2 eggs and buttermilk.

Make a well in flour mixture, add oil mixture and stir to form a thick batter

Scrape into pan and smooth top.

Brush top with egg-yolk mixture, then scatter with extra nuts, rosemary and sea salt.

Bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean (cover loosely with foil if browning too quickly).

Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out and cool on a rack.

Belinda Jeffery says... that eventhough it is tempting to eat this bread straight away, it tastes better after it has cooled. This is Belinda's recipe by the way... taken from Australian's edition Delicious magazine (Aug 2006, page 40).

hmmm... Salt-kissed eh?

2008-10-19T19:15:00.003+11:00

But it's a raspberry cake! I thought... and Oh! How beautiful!

Quite intrigued by the title, and enchanted by the photos, I made a mental note to try it out one day. Now I'm new here and don't yet know the etiquette of musing on one's recreation of someone else's recipe for one's blog. So ! For everyone's information, I took this recipe from 101 cookbooks.

Maybe wholemeal flour isn't quite the same as whole wheat pastry flour specified in the recipe... my cake turned out a tad dry. Otherwise, the lemony scent, the slightly crunchy top, the wholesomeness, the prettiness, and Oh! the (barely there) salty kiss...

I sipped my tea and took a bite

2008-10-12T20:13:00.000+11:00

with a look of quiet contentment on my face as the effect of tea and madeleine permeates my system. Occasionally seen, me sitting in my little cubicle at work in front of my monitor, having a Proustian moment.

I prefer to bake madeleines in the morning so that I can take some to work to share, as one shouldn't be too greedy! (and one (self) certainly doesn't need nor want to pound on the extra kilo...) They are very easy to make, requiring only the most staple baking ingredients. It takes about an hour to concoct from the moment the eggs are cracked open until the batch comes out of the oven.

My favourite madeleine recipe comes from the mighty Larousse des Desserts by Pierre Herme, nature with only a hint of lemon zest. They are beautiful little things, lightly crusted shell shaped bottom with golden risen tops. I like peeking into the oven just to check that every one of them blossoms into lovely domes.

Madeleines

makes 12

2 eggs
125 gr caster sugar
100 gr plain flour
3 gr baking powder
100 gr butter
grated zest of 1/4 lemon

1. Preheat oven to 230 C.
2. Melt butter gently in a small saucepan, leave to cool slightly.
3. Sift flour and baking powder into a medium bowl.
4. In a larger bowl, crack the eggs and to it, add the sugar.
5. Whisk egg and sugar energetically for around 5 minutes.
5. Add the flour 'en pluie' and then the melted butter
7. Lastly add the lemon zest.
8. Butter madeleine mould well! Fill each one with batter right up to almost the brim
9. After 5 minutes reduce temperature to 200 C. Bake for another 5 minutes or so until golden brown.

I want to be a one of them

2008-10-05T12:31:00.001+11:00

The Daring Bakers.... notoriously passionate, delicious lot of people (or so I have heard).

A little organisation

2008-06-27T17:30:00.031+10:00

Associates of Flour & Co

Apples
Apple and almond batter pudding
Chaussons aux pommes
Gâteau tatin aux pommes
Apple strudel
Tarte aux pommes
Tarte fine aux pommes

Big cakes
Abbey's infamous cheesecake
Apple and almond batter pudding
Caramel cake with caramelised butter frosting
Gâteau tatin aux pommes
Lemon loaf with poppy seeds
One-pan chocolate cake
L'Opera
Salt-kissed raspberry buttermilk cake

Biscuits
Almond bread
Double choc chip cookies
Tuiles

Breads
Focaccia farcita
Hot cross buns
Organic sourdough bread
Organic sourdough cheese rolls
Pain au fromage (cheese loaf)
Quick pecan, olive and buttermilk bread

Chicken
Chicken with tomatoes, capsicums and couscous

Chocolate
Chocolate tart
Creamy chocolate puddings with chocolate sauce
Chocolate Valentino (Flourless chocolate cake)
Double choc chip cookies
One-pan chocolate cake
L'Opera

Curries
Panaeng curry

Desserts
Crème brûlée
Crème caramel
Panna cotta
Vanilla bean ice-cream
Crème brulée aux fruits de la passion

Edible Alphabet Series

G - Gougerès
I - Ice-cream, Vanilla bean
O - L'Opera

Fish
Quick salmon & potato al forno

Ice-cream
Vanilla bean ice-cream

Little cakes
Abbey's infamous cheesecake
Chocolate Valentino (Flourless chocolate cake)
Creamy chocolate puddings with chocolate sauce
Madeleines

Noodles
Gai cuon (fresh spring rolls)
Pad thai

Pasta
Pasta all'uovo

Patisserie
Chaussons aux pommes
Chocolate tart
Galette des rois
Gougerès
Tarte aux pommes

Savouries
Focaccia farcita
Gougerès
Organic sourdough cheese rolls
Pain au fromage (cheese loaf)
Quick pecan, olive and buttermilk bread

Tarts
Chocolate tart
Tarte aux pommes
Tarte fine aux pommes

Thai
Pad thai
Panaeng curry

Viennoiseries
Apple strudel
Croissants

Vietnamese
Gai cuon (fresh spring rolls)

Miscellaneous
Rhubarb compote